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The  Origin  of  Subjectivity 
in  Hindu  Thought 


i By 

ETHEL  MA  Y  KITCH 


PHILOSOPHIC  STUDIES 

ISSUED  UNDER  THE  DIRECTION  OF  THE  DEPARTMENT  OF 
PHILOSOPHY  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO 

NUMBER  7 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


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THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY 
IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY 
IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


BY 


ETHEL  MAY  KITCH 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


Copyright  1917  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Published  August  1917 


Composed  and  Printed  By 
The  University  of  Chicago  Press 
Chicago,  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


FOREWORD 


This  book  is  the  outcome  of  a  long  interest  in  Hindu  life  and 
thought.  My  gratitude  is  due  Professor  Simon  Frazer  Mac- 
Lennan,  professor  of  philosophy  in  Oberlin  College,  for  suggesting 
investigation  in  this  field  with  a  view  to  a  social  interpretation. 
I  wish  also  to  express  my  sincerest  appreciation  to  Professor  George 
Herbert  Mead  and  Dr.  Walter  Eugene  Clark,  of  the  University 
of  Chicago,  for  assistance  and  advice  in  making  the  investigation 
and  for  direction  in  the  construction  of  the  paper. 


5 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Introduction . 

1.  Isolation  of  Indian  Thought 

Difficulties  of  Research 

2.  Indian  Thought  Essentially  Religious 

Contrasted  Briefly  with  Hebrew,  Greek,  Roman  Thought 

3.  Literature  Used — Religious  Hymns,  Epics,  Dramas,  etc. 

Analysis  of  the  Vedas 

4.  The  Problem:  Cause  of  Chief  Characteristics  of  Indian  Thought- 
Subjectivity 

a)  Self-consciousness — Its  Rise 

(1)  Objective — Development  of  Physical  Object 

(2)  Subjective 

(a)  Failure  to  Gain  Expression  of  Object  of  Knowledge  or 
Desire 

(b)  Content  Not  Universalized  or  Socialized 

b)  The  Caste  System  an  Unyielding  Social  Barrier 

(1)  Western  v.  Eastern  Indian  Civilization 

(2)  Conservation  v.  Innovation 

(3)  Brahman  v.  Kshatriyan 

c)  Result  of  the  Opposition 

(1)  Subjectivity — Upanishad 

(2)  Doctrine  of  Illusion — Vedanta  System 

(3)  Doctrine  of  Negation  or  Nirvana — Buddhism 

5.  Brief  of  Chapters 

CHAPTER 

I.  Vedism  . 

1.  Aryan  Invasion  4000  (?)-i5oo  b.c. 

Characteristics  and  Organization 

2.  Vedic  Pantheon 

a)  General  Characteristics 

b)  Comparison  with  Mazdan  Religion 

c )  Chief  Gods 

(1)  Indra 

(2)  Agni 

(3)  Varuna 

3.  Nature  of  Rig- Veda  Hymns 

4.  Conditions  of  Social  Life 

a )  Unusual  Primitive  Conditions 


7 


8 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

b)  Indian  Conditions 

(1)  Warrior — the  Leader 

(2)  Priest — Proxy  Worship 

(3)  Herdsman 

c )  Developing  Class-Consciousness  of  Priest 

II.  Transition  from  Vedism  to  Brahmanism . 

1.  Indian  Thought  Shifts  from  Objective  to  Subjective  Tendency 

a)  Literature:  Rig-Veda,  Books  I  and  X,  Atharva-Veda, 
Brahmanas 

b)  Cause 

(1)  Territorial  Change 

(2)  Political  Change 

(3)  Social  Change 

(4)  Conceptual  Change 

(a)  Developing  of  the  Conception  of  Brahman 

i)  Objective  “Barhis” — Hymns,  Prayer,  Spell 

ii)  Subjective — Sacred  Learning 

iii)  Immanent — Brihaspati — Brahman 

( b )  Monistic  Tendency 

i)  Confused  Characteristics 

ii)  Dual  Gods 

iii)  Many  Gods  under  One  Name 

iv)  Physical  Monism — Purusha 

v)  Beginning  of  Spiritual  Monism — Brihaspati 

vi)  Immanent  (?)  Self — Brahman 

2.  Vedism  v.  Brahmanism 

a)  Religion — Magical  and  Ceremonial 

Sacrifice — Center  of  Interest 

b)  Priest — Chief  Social  Figure 

Development  of  Vedic  Studentship — Brahmacarin 

c)  Development  of  Caste  through  Social  Control  by  Priest 

III.  Theory  of  the  Sacrifice . 

1.  Sacrifice — Absorbing  Feature  of  Early  Indian  Worship 

a)  Nature  of  the  Sacrifice 

(1)  Origin — Totemism — Food  Ceremonial 

(a)  Stimulation  of  Food  and  Drink 

( b )  Stimulation  of  the  Incarnation  or  Prayer 

(2)  Purpose — Medium  for  Acquiring  an  Object  of  Desire 

(3)  Result — Re-creation  of  Individual  and  God 

b)  Theory  of  Sacrifice 

(1)  Sacred  Animal — the  God  Worshiped 

(2)  The  God  Eaten  by  the  Sacrificer 

(3)  Through  Eating  the  Food  and  Drinking  the  “Libation”  the 
Sacrificer  is  Exhilarated,  Energized  in  Body  and  Mind 


■  CONTENTS 


9 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

(4)  A  New  “Vision”  of  the  God  Conceived  in  this  State 

(5)  Sacrifice — the  Vehicle  for  Development  of  Conceptions 
of  Deity 

2.  Sacrificial  or  Ritualistic  Brahmanism 

Ritualistic  Brahmanism  an  Arrested  Development 

Comparison  with  Hebrew  and  Egyptian  Priesthood 

IV.  Philosophical  Brahmanism . 48 

1.  Innovations  from  Kshatriyans 

a)  Atman  Conception 

(1)  Breath — Air 

(2)  Life — Breath — Life-Principle 

(3)  Energy  or  Power  of  Life-Principle 

(4)  Spirit  of  Sickness 

(5)  Living  Body — Cosmic  Energy 

(6)  Self — the  Thinking,  Moving  Self  ( ?) — Kshatriyan  Idea 

(7)  Self — the  Thinking  Subject — Unknowable — Brahman 

b )  The  Upanishads  Record  This  Conflict  of  (6)  and  (7) 

2.  Transition  from  Sacrifice  to  Sacred  Knowledge 

a)  Gods  Take  on  Positive  Function 

b )  Priests  Become  Human  Gods  through  Knowledge  of  Sacrifice 

c )  Knowledge  Better  than  Good  Works  (Sacrifice) 

(1)  Each  Has  Same  Dialectic 

(2)  Each  Has  Same  Social  Value 

d)  Meaning  of  Object  of  Knowledge  and  Object  of  Desire 

e)  Failure  to  Be  Realized  by  Kshatriyan 

Warrior  Has  Lost  His  Social  Function 
/)  Success  of  Brahman  Definition 

Increased  Emphasis  of  Brahman  Functions 

3.  Result — Atman  Becomes  an  Abstraction 

4.  Vedanta  System  Continues  Argument 

a)  Subject,  the  Only  Reality 

b)  Objective  World  an  Illusion — M5ya 

5.  Social  Situation 

a)  Kshatriyan  Builds  Independent  Philosophical  Conception  of 
Atman 

b)  This  Conception  Confiscated  by  the  Brahmans 

c)  Tribal  Supremacy  of  Kurus  Emphasized  Individuality  for 
Warriors 

d )  Possible  Conflict  of  Brahman  Supremacy  and  Kshatriyan 
Initiative 

6.  Religious  Mechanism  of  Philosophical  Brahmanism 

Contemplation 

(1)  Meaning 

(2)  Comparison  with  Sacrifice  as  Vehicle  of  Transformation 

(3)  Result — “Brahman  Is  Atman” 


IO 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

7.  Failure  of  Innovation 

a)  Class  of  Brahmans  Prevents  Reconstruction 

b )  Pantheon  an  Arrested  Development — No  Power  of  Recon¬ 
struction  Here 

V.  Later  Innovations . 64 

1.  Authority  of  Buddhist  Life 

2.  Buddhist  Legend 

3.  Buddhist  Literature 

4.  Buddhist  Doctrine 

a)  Impermanence  of  Individual 

b )  Sorrow  Inherent  in  Individuality 

c )  Unreality  of  an  Abiding  Principle 

5.  Buddha’s  Social  Code 

Meaning  of  Salvation — Nirvana 

6.  The  Ten  Fetters 

7.  The  Object  of  Desire — Vital  Facts  of  Life 

8.  Impossible  Ideal  in  Indian  Caste  System 

9.  Suppression  of  Desire — Control  of  Senses  and  Feelings 

10.  Materialists  Destroy  Both  Body  and  Soul 

11.  Transmigration  Theory 

12.  Fall  of  Buddhism 

a)  Internal  Causes — Overemphasis  on  Repression  of  Self 

b)  External  Causes — Opposition  of  Brahmanism 

13.  Jainism  and  Other  Heretical  Religions 

14.  These  Innovations  Refinished  by  Brahmans 

VI.  Orthodox  Developments . 71 

1.  Positive  Changes  Crept  into  the  Mahdbhdrata 

a)  Changes  of  Personnel  of  Pantheon 

b)  Numerous  Inferior  Features  Come  into  Popular  Religion 

(1)  Asceticism  Emphasized 

(2)  Fetishism 

(3)  Idolatry 

(4)  Ancient  Rites  and  Superstitions 

c)  Vaisnavism 

d)  Bhakti  Idea  of  Krishna  Worship 

e)  Rudra-Qva  Worship 

/)  Paradoxical  Nature  of  the  Epic 

2.  Secular  Awakening — 400-1000  a.d. 

a)  Science 

b)  Literature 

c)  Philosophy 

3.  Another  Political  Centralization 

4.  Warrior  Functions  through  the  Brahmans 


VII.  Summary . 75 

Bibliography . 80 


INTRODUCTION 


One  of  the  most  fascinating  and  yet  most  neglected  fields  of 
human  experience  is  that  known  as  Indian  or  Hindu  thought. 
Hemmed  in  by  the  Himalaya  Mountains  and  the  Indian  Sea, 
it  existed  in  comparative  isolation  from  both  oriental  and  occi¬ 
dental  thought  until  the  invasion  of  the  English  in  the  eighteenth 
century.  Even  the  hardiest  and  most  persistent  investigator  has 
been  baffled  by  this  prolific  product  of  more  than  thirty  centuries, 
extending  from  the  migrations  of  an  Aryan  branch  into  the  Indus 
Valley  some  ten  or  fifteen  centuries  before  the  Christian  era  to 
the  conquest  of  Lord  Clive.  However,  a  century  of  arduous 
research  by  Max  Muller,  Oldenberg,  Geldner,  Rhys  Davids,  and 
other  adventurous  spirits  has  blazed  pathways  into  this  fasci¬ 
nating  jungle.  The  disagreement  of  these  pioneers  makes  it, 
nevertheless,  sometimes  rather  unsafe  ground  for  the  novice,  who 
must  always  proceed  with  caution  and  trembling. 

But  the  pursuit  proves  too  interesting.  Hindu  thought  is 
essentially  social  and  also  universally  religious.  The  social  is 
religious  and  the  religious  social.  Indian  thought  passes  through 
a  variety  of  forms,  but  this  characteristic  is  always  outstanding. 
It  has  almost  nothing  that  could  be  classed  as  strictly  secular. 
No  Burbank  of  human  experience  could  produce  a  species  more 
delightful  to  the  modern  religious  theorist.  It  differs  from  Hebrew 
life  in  a  comparative  absence  of  the  moral  element;  from  the  Greek 
in  its  lesser  definition  of  its  god-forms,  in  its  polytheism,  and  in 
its  want  of  interest  in  science;  from  the  Roman  in  its  lack  of  initia¬ 
tive  and  of  ability  for  organization;  and  from  all  Western  thought 
in  its  emphasis  upon  the  subjective  phase  and  its  neglect  of  the 
individual  as  such. 

The  means  of  investigation  in  this  field  is  itself  restricted. 
Because  of  India’s  isolation  foreign  commentary  prior  to  the 
tenth  century  a.d.  is  of  small  amount;  Megasthenes,  the  Mace¬ 
donian  ambassador  to  the  court  of  Chandragupta  in  the  fourth 
century  b.c.,  has  left  us  some  records  of  Hindu  life  of  that  period. 


12 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


Also  Chinese  travelers  to  India  have  given  a  description  of  Bud¬ 
dhist  India.  The  internal  presentation  of  its  thought  is  limited 
by  its  lack  of  treatises  on  history  and  science.  The  materials  to 
be  used  are  the  religious  hymns,  the  sacrificial  formulae,  the  law¬ 
books,  the  epics,  the  dramas,  the  fables,  the  lyrics,  and  the  philo¬ 
sophical  treatises.  For  the  sake  of  simplicity  and  clearness  it 
may  be  advisable  to  indicate  the  arrangement  of  the  earliest  por¬ 
tion  of  the  Sanskrit  literature — -the  Vedas.  The  core  of  these  is 
the  Rig-Veda,  a  collection  of  ten  books  of  sacrificial  hymns;  it 
is  followed  by  the  Sama-Veda,  the  metrical  version  of  these  hymns; 
by  the  Yajur-Veda,  sacrificial  formulae;  and  by  the  Atharva-Veda, 
magic  charms  and  spells.  Each  Veda  has  special  divisions,  and 
these  cover  a  considerable  period  of  time,  showing  definite  change 
and  development.  These  divisions  may  be  indicated  as  follows: 

Veda — 

a)  Mantra:  Mere  hymn -poetry. 

b )  Brahman.a:  The  text  in  prose — an  interpretation  or  explanation 

of  the  Mantra. 

1.  Aranyaka:  Forest  Books. 

2.  Upanishads:  Philosophical  books. 

c)  Stitra  (“thread”)1  A  syllabus  of  the  long  Brahmana. 

1.  Crauta:  Public  type  of  sacrifice — king’s  sacrifice 

2.  Gjihya:  Minor  sacrifice — marriage,  death,  etc. 

3.  Dharma:  Concerning  relations  towards  fellow-men  and  gods — 

duties. 

The  highest  interest  in  all  the  literature  is  that  which  centers 
around  the  essential  characteristics  of  later  vedic  thought — Its 
subjectivity.  This  subjectivity,  with  its  attendant  pessimism  and 
doctrine  of  illusion,  form  a  development  different  from  that  of 
any  other  country.  Hence  our  problem  becomes  an  investiga¬ 
tion  of  the  sources  and  conditions  which  could  produce  such  a 
peculiar  type  of  experience. 

Subjectivity  is  a  type  of  self-consciousness  due  to  a  persistent 
thwarting  of  individual  experience.  Consciousness  does  not  ap¬ 
pear  in  the  experience  process  until  an  obstacle  arises,  that  is, 
until  there  is  a  lapse  in  the  process;  instinct  and  habit  are  illus¬ 
trations  of  such  a  continuous  experience  process.  But  when  the 
experience  process  is  blocked,  this  suspension  permits  its  separation 


INTRODUCTION 


13 


into  parts,  and  it  becomes  what  we  call  the  knowledge  process. 
Such  an  opposition  of  parts  is  necessary  to  the  rise  of  self- 
consciousness;  every  individual  consciousness  must  become  aware 
of  something  set  over  against  itself  before  it  can  be  aware  of  itself. 
These  parts  of  the  opposition  we  call  the  subject  and  the  object. 
However,  this  self-consciousness  can  be  expressed  in  two  ways: 
If  this  opposition  is  mediated,  the  synthesis  that  results  is  a  rela¬ 
tionship  of  unity  in  difference,  the  unity  of  the  act.  In  the  unity 
of  the  act  the  object  of  knowledge  or  the  object  of  desire  is  cre¬ 
ated  as  such  from  the  reactions  of  the  subject;  this  furnishes  a 
mechanism  for  the  control  of  the  object,  and  a  voluntary,  natural 
accommodation  on  the  part  of  the  subject.  It  is  not  merely  the 
definiteness  of  an  object  that  permits  us  to  act,  but  the  ability  to 
act  defines  the  object,  makes  it  more  concrete.  The  individual 
in  this  mediation  does  not  lose  his  identity  or  his  form  of  expres¬ 
sion;  he  expresses  himself  through  his  construction  of  the  physical 
object,  which  in  turn  is  built  up  by  the  reactions  of  the  self.  The 
knowledge  process,  then,  is  a  continuous  interaction  of  subject  and 
object  when  we  have  an  objective  type  of  thought.  When  the 
impulse  to  movement,  of  which  this  object  of  knowledge  or  desire 
is  the  initial  phase,  attains  fulfilment,  it  becomes  universalized, 
that  is,  a  part  of  the  world  outside  of  the  individual.  In  a  con¬ 
crete  situation  the  process  would  be  expressed  as  the  object  of 
knowledge  or  desire  becoming  socialized;  thus  the  individual 
becomes  a  real,  active,  concrete  element  within  his  social  group, 
and  his  experience  is  taken  over  by  the  group-consciousness.  The 
individual  consciousness  now  possesses  a  social  value  through  the 
individual’s  ability  to  initiate  and  organize  group  experience. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  this  opposition  in  the  experience  process 
cannot  be  mediated,  cannot  become  an  action,  the  subject  turns 
back  within  itself.  The  result  is  a  subjective  self-consciousness. 
In  its  social  aspect  this  means  the  thwarting  of  the  universalizing 
or  socializing  process,  and  experience  must  turn  within  the  indi¬ 
vidual  and  there  reform  the  object  of  knowledge  or  desire.  The 
result  is  either  the  rise  of  a  system  of  control  within  the  individual 
in  terms  of  other  ideas  and  desires  or  the  suppression  altogether 
of  this  idea  or  emotion  which  cannot  be  universalized.  The  meaning 


14  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  HINDU  IN  THOUGHT 

of  this  suspended  impulse  is  that  eventually  it  kills  itself  or  is 
annihilated ;  on  the  social  side  the  individual  fails  to  find  an  evalu¬ 
ation  of  himself  in  the  group-consciousness. 

This  is  what  happened  in  India.  A  fixed  caste  system  fur¬ 
nished  the  unyielding  opposition  against  which  the  self  was  forced. 
In  the  northern  and  eastern  parts  of  India,  where  migration  and 
conquests  were  still  active,  the  warrior  controlled  conditions. 
In  the  older  and  more  permanent  civilization  of  Western  India 
the  warrior  had  lost  his  function,  and  the  Brahman  became  the 
chief  figure.  Here  the  priests  dominated  everything.  Thus  all 
orthodox  doctrines  arose  in  the  western  center  of  Brahmanism, 
and  the  reconstructive  tendencies  are  attributed  to  the  warriors 
in  the  eastern  section.  The  Brahman,  not  being  opposed  in  the 
expressing  of  his  function,  did  not  feel  problems  that  must  con¬ 
front  the  Kshatriyans.  His  loyalty  to  caste,  his  indifference  to, 
and  even  unconsciousness  of,  the  others’  problem,  served  as  an 
effective  check  on  the  ideal  and  desire  that  the  king  chose  to  real¬ 
ize.  The  king  was  a  figurehead,  not  a  real  ruler.  It  was  the 
history  of  this  opposition  which  set  the  theme  for  all  later  litera¬ 
ture  and  which  was  the  history  of  a  suspended  ideal  that  was  never 
universalized  in  Indian  Society.  The  result  was  the  doctrine  of 
illusion  in  the  Vedanta  system  and  the  pessimism  and  negation 
of  Buddhism.  The  trend  of  subjectivity  was  in  a  continuous  line, 
fatal  and  predetermined  as  long  as  the  Brahmans  were  at  the  head 
of  the  caste  and  not  aroused  to  self-consciousness. 

In  chapter  i  is  traced  the  early  tendency  toward  an  objective 
development  of  nature  and  the  person;  the  following  chapter 
shows  its  transition  to  a  philosophical  interest  and  the  rise  of  a 
subjective  interest  through  emphasis  upon  the  class-consciousness 
of  the  Brahman  and  the  function  of  this  group.  This  class- 
consciousness  was  developed  through  the  sacrifice,  which  was  the 
chief  expression  of  the  priest’s  function,  and  also  through  the  form 
of  education  and  initiation  for  this  duty,  Brahmacarya.  Thus 
the  priests  were  set  aside  as  peculiarly  fitted  for  this  service  and 
as  particularly  sanctified  by  it.  All  of  this  emphasized  and  helped 
crystallize  the  class  system  which  was  rapidly  arising  from  dis¬ 
tinctions  in  occupation  and  color  (conquered  Dra vidian). 


INTRODUCTION 


15 


In  chapter  iv  the  social  system  and  the  religious  formulation 
have  arrived  at  a  condition  of  arrested  development.  The  first 
attempt  to  express  the  individual  desire  for  new  function  and 
meaning  comes  in  the  Kshatriyan  doctrine  of  the  self  as  the  know¬ 
ing  subject.  The  texts  hint  at  a  self  which  is  to  find  all  its  impulses 
and  activities  real.  The  sense- world  is  true  and  valuable.  But 
the  Brahmans  have  taken  all  the  flavor  out  of  these  passages  by 
identifying  this  self  with  an  All- God  which  cannot  be  known. 

The  Vedanta  is  the  conclusion  of  this  theory.  It  asserts  that 
the  true  self  is  the  unknown  and  unknowable  inner  being.  This 
self  through  ignorance  becomes  united  with  the  senses,  but  the 
world  which  this  union  depicts  is  unreal,  therefore  an  illusion. 

Buddhism  and  the  heretical  movements  are  discussed  in  chap¬ 
ter  v.  The  Buddhists  accept  no  god  and  eventually  destroy  the 
conscious  self.  Their  system  of  control  of  self  assists  in  bringing 
harmony  into  this  life,  but  is  of  no  value  for  the  future  existence 
in  Nirvana.  The  materialists  conclude  the  negative  movement 
by  destroying  everything  except  existence  in  this  life. 

Chapter  vi  records  briefly  the  positive  developments  as  found 
in  the  epic  and  the  renaissance  of  the  Christian  era,  which  held 
vital  possibilities  that  were  never  realized. 


CHAPTER  I 
VEDISM 


When  the  curtain  rises  on  Indian  life,  the  Aryans  are  in  migra¬ 
tion,  having  come  through  the  mountain  passes  of  the  western 
spurs  of  the  Himalayas,  into  the  Punjab.  The  early  hymns  of 
the  Rig-Veda  depict  them  in  constant  warfare  with  the  native 
Dravidians — a  dark-skinned,  primitive  people.  They  lived  in 
tribes  or  classes  under  the  leadership  of  chieftains  or  rajahs  and 
possessed  definite  nomadic  tendencies.  Probably  a  small  amount 
of  grain  was  raised,  or  else  the  wild  grain  was  collected  for  food; 
but  their  produce  was  butter  {ghee)  and  milk,  and  their  universal 
occupation  cattle-raising.  A  few  horses  were  known;  these  seem 
to  have  belonged  to  the  rajahs  and  warriors  and  were  used  with 
chariots  or  for  occasional  sacrifice.  Homes  are  mentioned — possi¬ 
bly  their  own  more  or  less  temporary  dwelling-places  or  those  of 
the  natives.  Jewels,  gold,  metal-work,  weapons  of  metal,  and 
cooking  utensils  were  known.  Some  wild  animals  are  spoken  of — • 
a  fact  which  helps  to  determine  Aryan  occupation  of  the  Punjab 
at  this  time — and  there  is  also  direct  reference  to  the  river  Indus 
and  its  five  tributaries.  Holderness,  speaking  of  modern  India, 
says: 

The  Indo-Aryan  type  is  met  with  chiefly  in  the  Punjab,  Rajputana, 
and  Kashmir.  It  approaches  closely  to  that  ascribed  to  the  traditional  Aryan 
colonists  of  India.1  ....  The  Rajput  clans  are  the  purest  specimens  of  the 

Aryan  race  in  India.  The  Rajputs  are  there  as  rulers  and  overlords . 

The  cultivating  classes  and  trading  classes  are  of  Dravidian  and  mixed  Dra- 
vidian  type.  And  still  lower  down  in  the  social  scale,  in  the  recesses  of  the 
hills  and  jungles,  the  pure  Dravidian  is  found  in  the  person  of  the  Bheel.2 

The  date  of  the  invasion  is  quite  impossible  to  establish;  dates 
ranging  from  4000  to  1500  b.c.  have  been  suggested.  The  date 
of  the  collection  of  the  hymns  was  undoubtedly  somewhat  later, 
the  most  acceptable  date  being  between  1500  and  1000  b.c.  The 

1  Holderness,  Peoples  and  Problems  of  India ,  p.  69. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  74. 

16 


VEDISM 


17 


hymns  were  written  by  special  priests  or  families  of  priests  and 
were  to  be  used  at  the  sacrifice;  they  were  finally  collected  by  a 
developing  priesthood  as  a  permanent  and  efficient  means  of 
approaching  the  gods.  There  are  1,028  hymns  in  the  Rig-Veda. 
A  study  of  their  meter  and  arrangement  shows  a  long  development. 
Books  II-VIII  are  accepted  as  the  first  collection,  and  Books  IX, 
I,  and  X  as  later  additions.  Therefore  our  first  statement  of  their 
religious  conceptions  will  be  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  earlier 
collection,  Books  II-VIII.  The  Rig-Veda  has  always  been  held 
as  the  source  of  religious  authority;  it  was  given  as  a  revelation  to 
the  seers  and  is  supposed  to  have  existed  from  eternity. 

The  pantheon  of  Vedism  contains  an  infinite  number  of  gods, 
but  thirty-three  may  be  taken  as  an  approximation.  The  reason 
for  this  indefiniteness  lies  in  the  nature  of  the  gods.  Bloomfield 
classifies  them  as  (1)  prehistoric,  (2)  transparent,  (3)  translucent, 
(4)  opaque,  (5)  abstract.  Aside  from  the  first  type  these  indicate 
degrees  of  personification.  But  the  gods  are  ill-defined  and  want¬ 
ing  in  distinction  from  each  other.  If  it  were  not  for  the  name  in 
the  hymn,  it  would  be  difficult  to  determine  which  god  the  Hindu 
worshiper  intended  to  praise.  Their  qualities  overlap  and  seem 
almost  to  merge  into  one  being.  These  vague  delineations  sug¬ 
gest  how  poor  were  Hindu  conceptions  of  an  individual  and  indi¬ 
cate  the  intensity  of  the  early  group-consciousness  which  could 
so  indure  in  the  shifting  conditions  involved  in  the  migration.  The 
gods  did  not  live  in  a  family  organization  like  the  Greek  gods,  and 
the  hymns  are  to  the  gods  rather  than  about  them.  Undoubtedly 
consciousness  centered  in  the  clan,  and  not  essentially  in  the  family 
or  the  individual,  though,  as  we  have  seen,  the  first  step  toward 
a  consciousness  has  been  taken.  This  meager  mythology  of  the 
Rig-Veda  may  have  come  from  a  remote  period.  A  comparison 
of  the  gods  and  the  myths  of  the  Mazdan  religion  with  the  Rig- 
Veda  suggests  what  a  long  road  these  ideas  must  have  traveled. 
A  few  words  will  show  some  of  the  associations  that  can  be  made: 
Andra-demon,  Indra;  Mithra,  Mitra;  haoma,  soma;  baresman, 
barhis;  and  zaotar,  ho  tar.  The  first  two  associations  are  gods; 
the  two  following,  details  of  the  sacrifice;  and  the  last  is  a  special 
priest.  The  function  and  importance  of  these  gods  vary  in  the 


18  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 

two  countries,  indicating  undoubtedly  a  considerable  change  in 
the  Iranian  or  the  Hindu  people  and  possibly  in  both.  Many  of 
the  Hindu  deities  are  Persian  demons,  a  fact  which  may  indicate 
an  ethical  advance  among  the  Persians  beyond  the  originally  com¬ 
mon  belief.  Usually  the  Hindu  gods  represented  phases  of  nature 
that  were  significant  to  them,  such  as  the  rain,  the  sun,  the  wind, 
fire,  water,  heaven  and  earth,  the  dawn,  and  the  storm.  But  it 
must  be  remembered  at  every  point  in  this  description  that  Vedism 
is  an  aristocratic  religion,  and  it  is  in  a  later  period  that  the  first 
evidence  of  a  popular  religion  appears. 

The  god  in  ascendance  in  this  early  period  was  Indra;  more 
than  two  hundred  and  fifty  hymns  were  dedicated  to  him.  He  is 
boastful — a  hearty  warrior,  representing  great  physical  power, 
and  a  lusty  eater  and  drinker.  Here  is  a  picture  of  all  the  com¬ 
bativeness,  the  animal  spirits,  the  crudity,  the  braggadocio  yet 
simplicity  and  directness  of  the  Indo-Aryan  chieftain;  just  a  little 
fancy  transplants  him  to  Southern  Europe  and  the  fifth  century 
and  he  becomes  a  marauding  Goth.  If  any  class  supremacy  exists 
in  this  period,  it  must  surely  belong  to  the  burly  warrior.  Indra 
is  a  kind  of  Hercules — he  conquers  demons;  he  is,  moreover,  Lord 
of  Heaven,  maker  of  all  things  and  identified  with  the  sun.  Muir 
points  out  that  “a  variety  of  vague  and  general  epithets  are  lav¬ 
ished  upon  Indra.”1 

Without  whom  naught  exists,  Indra  the  Lofty  One; 

In  whom  all  heroic  powers  are  combined; 

The  Soma  is  within  him,  in  his  frame  is  vast  strength, 

The  thunder  in  his  hand  and  wisdom  in  his  head.2 

He  has  been  given  more  physical  description  than  any  other 
Hindu  god;  he  has  more  definite  personification.  Like  Zeus,  he  is 
the  thundergod,  the  protector  from  earthy  and  aerial  danger. 
Indra  then  can  be  said  to  be  the  projection  of  the  Rig-Veda  con¬ 
ception  of  the  Indian  social  group. 

From  the  point  of  the  number  of  hymns  the  next  god  in  impor¬ 
tance  was  Agni.  Some  two  hundred  hymns  were  his  portion. 

1  Muir,  Original  Sanskrit  Texts ,  V,  83. 

2  Rig-Veda.  II.  16.  2  (Griffith  translation). 


VEDISM 


19 


Agni  has  three  forms:  the  heavenly  fire,  the  atmospheric  fire,  and 
the  terrestrial  fire.  He  is  a  rival  of  Indra  in  questions  of  power 
and  influence. 

Praise  of  the  Ashura,  high  Imperial  Ruler,  the  Manly  One  in  whom  the  folk 
shall  triumph, 

I  laud  his  deeds  who  is  as  strong  as  Indra, 

And  lauding,  celebrate  the  Fort-Destroyer,  Sage,  Sign,  Food,  Light, 

They  bring  him  from  the  mountain,  the  Blessed  Sovran  of  the  earth  and 
heaven.1 

Agni  and  Soma  are  two  direct  physical  facts  which  are  given  wor¬ 
ship.  They  are  features  of  the  sacrifice  and  undoubtedly  testify  to 
the  importance  of  the  sacrifice  to  the  early  Aryan.  The  Soma, 
it  should  be  stated,  was  a  libation  poured  over  the  sacrifice  and 
kept  for  the  priests  who  partook  of  the  feasts  with  the  gods.  It 
was  the  juice  pressed  from  the  soma-plant  and  allowed  to  ferment. 
Agni  seems  to  typify  the  priest  spirit,  but  it  is  unsafe  to  base  a 
theory  of  class  rivalry  on  the  “ friendly”  contentions  of  the  gods 
Indra  and  Agni. 

Varuna  was  the  god  of  next  importance  in  popularity;  twelve 
hymns  were  dedicated  to  him.  Considerable  controversy  ranges 
about  the  significance  and  development  of  this  deity.  Varuna  is 
characterized  by  quietness,  repose,  and  dignity — features  wanting 
in  the  other  gods.  The  name  is  associated  with  the  Sanskrit  word 
rta,  which  means  “to  go,”  from  which  is  derived  the  idea  of  a  regu¬ 
lar  going.  Varuna  is,  then,  the  god  of  the  cosmic  order — this  is 
cosmic  law  and  becomes  the  god  of  the  moral  order  also.  Olden- 
berg  gives  Varuna  a  Semitic  origin,  because  he  is  the  only  god 
with  moral  characteristics.2 

“Loose  me  from  sin  as  from  a  bond  that  binds  me; 

May  we  swell,  Varuna,  thy  spring  of  Order.”3 

“Far  from  me  remove  all  danger; 

Accept  me  graciously  thou  Holy  Sovran.”4 

Later  Varuna  becomes  the  sky-god.  Many  later  passages  make 
this  reference,  and  Varuna  becomes  linked  with  Mitra,  the  sun- 
god.  Professor  Roth  contends  that  Varuna  belongs  to  an  older 

1  Rig- Veda.  VII.  6.  1,  2.  3R.-V.  II.  28.  5. 

3  Cf.  Oldenberg,  Religion  des  Vedas.  4  R.-V.  II.  28.  6. 


20 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


class  of  gods,  a  more  spiritual  and  supersensuous  religion  (possibly 
of  the  Indo-Xranian  period),  which  was  gradually  superseded  by 
the  nature-gods,  with  Indra  developing  as  they  advanced  into 
the  Punjab.  Furthermore,  Indra  was  scarcely  known  in  an  earlier 
period,  and  then  it  was  with  quite  a  different  nature.  This  is 
also  made  to  account  for  the  assumption  of  a  nature-form  by  Varuna 
later.1 

On  the  other  hand,  Professor  Muir  insists  that,  while  the  hymns 
have  some  passages  suggestive  of  rivalry  and  change,  there  is  not 
sufficient  evidence  to  warrant  such  a  contention.2  But  this  much 
is  of  interest  to  us:  Varuna  stood  alone  in  the  capacity  of  ruler 
of  a  moral  order  and  punisher  of  sin.  He  is  the  Hindus’  nearest 
approach  to  a  monotheistic  and  ethical  conception  of  God.  We 
must  assume  either  that  many  hymns  have  been  lost  or  that  the 
god  is  of  minor  importance.  This  latter  would  imply  small  sense 
of  sin  or  responsibility.  Later  conditions  justify  this  assumption — - 
the  thing  that  was  “right”  was  an  objective  affair,  a  successful 
act,  and  not  the  spiritual  attitude.  The  Greek  boy  who  was 
honored  if  he  could  steal  successfully  was  kin  to  the  Hindus. 

The  remainder  of  the  pantheon  was  constituted  of  more  or  less 
limited  personifications  of  natural  forces.  The  Adityas  were  sky- 
gods;  Vayu  and  Vata,  two  forms  of  the  wind;  Parjana,  the  thun¬ 
dering  rain-god;  Ushas,  the  dawn;  Pushan,  a  solar  deity,  protector 
and  multiplier  of  cattle;  the  two  great  sun-gods  are  Surya,  the  shin¬ 
ing  one,  and  Savitar,  the  awakener.  Vishnu,  the  mighty  one,  and 
Q iva,  the  destroyer,  were  gods  just  known  in  this  period,  but  des¬ 
tined  for  later  popularity.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  every 
class  had  its  representative  in  the  pantheon — Indra  for  the  Kshat- 
riyans,  Agni  for  the  Brahmans,  and  Pushan  for  the  Vaigyas.  The 
minor  position  of  Pushan  is  to  be  expected,  for  this  third  class  is 
granted  small  mention  in  the  hymns  and  could  not  have  been  in 
any  sense  a  class  with  initiative  and  power. 

The  Rig-Veda  hymns  had  in  them  very  little  of  direct,  warm, 
and  vital  experience;  they  were  ritualistic,  practical,  and  wholly 
utilitarian.  The  popular  poetical  inspirations  of  an  earlier  tra- 

1  Journal  of  the  German  Oriental  Society ,  VI,  76. 

3  Muir,  Original  Sanskrit  Texts ,  V,  121. 


VEDISM 


21 


dition  had  lost  vitality  and  emotion  and  had  degenerated  into 
a  conscious  tool,  merely  a  medium  of  approach  to  the  gods.  The 
gods  were  to  be  appeased  rather  than  revered.  To  give  them  food, 
drink,  and  flattery  was  better  than  to  be  good.  In  fact,  this  was 
the  only  good  that  the  Hindus  knew;  no  recognition  was  granted  to 
the  spirit  and  intention  of  the  act.  The  consequence  alone  was  the 
conscious  problem.  Consequently  there  was  no  element  of  pro¬ 
pitiation  for  sin,  only  an  offering  of  material  goods  to  gain  the  favor 
of  the  deities,  who  would  grant  further  wealth,  success,  and  happi¬ 
ness.  It  was  a  system  of  barter,  with  the  priest  as  middleman. 
The  Vedic  order  of  proxy  worship  called  for  no  response  from  the 
sacrificer,  except  in  terms  of  cattle  for  the  priest,  and  naturally 
became  largely  mechanical.  No  warmth  of  feeling  like  that  in 
the  Hebrew  psalms  was  found  in  the  Rig- Veda.  The  worship 
that  is  mechanical  for  the  worshiper  escapes  criticism;  as  long  as 
it  can  carry  on  the  illusion  of  effectiveness  through  its  elaboration 
and  complexity  the  worshiper  is  satisfied.  The  more  complicated 
the  service  appears  to  an  unquestioning  onlooker,  the  more  mys¬ 
tical  and  often  the  more  real  is  its  effect.  While  the  Rig-Veda  is 
thoroughly  objective  in  its  earlier  portion,  there  is  much  that  is 
mystical  and  unintelligible,  portentous  of  undefined  problems,  and 
half-conscious  of  the  ineffectiveness  of  the  Vedic  religious  system. 
But  this  unrest  was  destined  to  a  fulfilment  that  culminated  in  a 
system  that  warped  or  smothered  all  self-expression  or  budding 
hope. 

At  this  time  the  three  chief  classes  of  society — Brahmans, 
Kshatriyans,  and  Vai^yas — lived  in  comparative  freedom  with 
each  other.  What  may  have  been  their  primitive  condition  and 
how  far  they  had  progressed  history  gives  no  clue.  However, 
from  analogy  to  other  primitive  culture,  a  study  of  the  conditions 
of  life  in  the  Rig-Veda  permits  us  to  project  something  of  their 
past  and  to  attempt  an  explanation  of  their  present  and  future. 
They  belonged  to  definite  tribes;  the  stories  of  the  Mahdbhdrata 
seem  to  indicate  that  tribal  organization  was  pretty  strong.  The 
expression  of  the  community  spirit  in  a  stationary  tribe  is  by 
means  of  its  occupations,  such  as  hunting  and  fishing  and  crude 
handwork — and  in  times  of  defense.  Ideals  are  caught  up  from 


22 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


all  phases  of  life  and  focused  in  the  emotional  and  dramatic 
activities  of  the  religious  ceremonial.  These  ideals  are  not  con¬ 
scious  possessions  of  the  tribe;  the  closest  approach  to  thought- 
discriminations  and  definitions  are  in  the  social  concepts,  the 
so-called  “collective  representations,”  and  these,  too,  are  outside  of 
the  individual’s  conscious  development.  The  American  Indian,  the 
Australian  native,  and  many  African  tribes  exhibit  these  charac¬ 
teristics.  Attempts  to  deal  with  nature,  human  or  non-human 
(for  primitive  peoples  make  no  distinction),  are  by  means  of  magic. 
This  likewise  is  an  unconscious  process — unconscious  at  least  from 
the  standpoint  of  being  a  solution.  This  method  has  effectiveness 
only  so  far  as  it  is  applied  under  the  hypnotic  influence  of  com¬ 
plete  group  participation.1 

Differentiation  comes  into  this  tribal  unity  through  contact 
with  other  tribes  in  times  of  defense,  possibly  arising  out  of  scanty 
food  supply  in  the  territory  of  the  aggressor.  Also  one  member  of 
the  tribe  becomes  distinguished  as  leader  in  war  or  in  the  magic 
ceremonies,  and  this  means  that  he  has  more  of  the  vital  principle, 
the  “mana”  of  the  tribe.  He  becomes  then  sanctified,  or  a  being 
in  some  measure  set  apart.  The  captive  taken  in  war,  when  not 
killed,  is  given  the  most  undesirable  service  of  the  tribe.  In  these 
two  types  are  found  the  beginnings,  the  top  and  bottom  rounds  of 
a  social  ladder. 

The  Indo-Aryans  when  they  first  appear  in  Sanskrit  literature 
have  only  such  remnants  of  this  stationary  life  as  magic,  cere¬ 
monial,  and  taboo.  They  are  no  longer  stationary  but  nomadic. 
A  comparison  of  Indian  and  Iranian  mythology  indicates  that  a 
considerable  advance  from  early  group  types  had  been  made  before 
the  separation  of  these  two  branches  of  Aryan  people.  Possibly 
both  were  nomadic  people.  Out  of  this  nomadic  existence  and 
constant  warfare  new  forms  of  social  classification  have  sprung. 
A  shifting  social  situation  is  always  coincident  with  flexibility  of 
thought  and  presents  opportunities  of  reconstruction  and  progress. 
This  condition  lends  itself  to  an  appreciation  of  individuality.  The 
meager  tendency  toward  personification  of  the  gods  and  their 
attendant  caprice  reflects  this  social  opportunity.  But  it  was 

1  Cf.  Levy-Bruhl,  Les  Fonctions  mentales  dans  les  socUtes  inferieures. 


VEDISM 


23 


destined  to  measure  its  own  defeat.  The  warrior  found  his  func¬ 
tion  more  and  more  limited  by  the  press  of  such  circumstances 
as  the  guerilla  warfare  and  the  advance  into  the  Punjab  Valley. 
The  tribe  does  not  have  opportunity  to  carry  on  its  religious  cere¬ 
monials  and  feasts  as  a  community;  it  begins  to  lose  its  collective 
spiritual  experience.  A  system  of  proxy  worship  for  the  chieftains 
and  warriors  is  set  up ;  the  medicine-men  and  magicians  of  the  tribe 
increase,  because  each  leader  needs  his  priest  to  protect  him  and 
absolve  him  from  the  taboo  of  the  enemy  through  these  proxy 
ceremonies.  The  long  ceremonies  (the  horse  sacrifice)  must  have 
been  carried  on  in  the  absence  of  the  warrior.  It  might  be  noted 
here  that  the  horse  sacrifice  was  the  privilege  of  the  warrior  and 
the  rajah  only.  Some  insist  that  this  had  as  its  cause  economic 
conditions — none  but  a  king  or  a  chieftain  could  afford  a  horse;  but 
may  it  not  have  a  significant  bearing  upon  the  usefulness  and 
necessity  of  the  horse  for  the  warrior  ?  This  proxy  worship  tended 
to  develop  the  dependence  of  the  warrior  class  upon  the  priests, 
for  it  was  the  ceremonial  that  brought  success  and  happiness.  In 
so  far  as  the  priest  was  successful  he  gained  in  power  over  the 
warrior,  and  his  consciousness  of  himself  as  an  effective  and  impor¬ 
tant  instrument  was  set  over  against  that  of  the  warrior  who 
depended  upon  him.  This  growing  class-consciousness  was  indi¬ 
cated  even  in  the  earlier  hymns  of  the  Rig-Veda.  Some  of  the 
priests  or  rishis  had  already  attained  renown  for  their  skill;  one 
of  them  was  even  looked  upon  as  the  founder  of  the  race — the 
Hindu  Adam — a  kind  of  creator;  but  no  priest  was  as  yet  classed 
with  the  gods,  a  misfortune  which  befell  him  in  the  Atharva-Veda. 

The  third  Aryan  class — the  Vaigyas — was  the  commissary 
department  of  this  roving  army.  Undoubtedly  the  less  fit,  those 
inferior  in  wit  and  energy,  formed  this  class.  They  were  the  herds¬ 
men,  and  probably  with  the  women  the  collectors  of  the  harvest. 
It  was  again  the  press  of  circumstances — their  roving,  warlike 
state — that  forced  the  food  production  or  collection  upon  a  special 
class.  There  is  no  further  light  upon  the  condition  of  the  Valyas, 
for  the  only  source  of  description  has  come  from  the  hands  of  the 
priests,  in  the  production  of  whose  consciousness  the  herdsmen 
seem  to  have  played  little  or  no  part.  This  result  was  but  natural; 


24  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 

the  priest  derived  his  food  and  property  from  the  warrior  as  pay¬ 
ment  for  gaining  the  favor  of  the  gods  for  him;  the  warrior  was 
served  with  meat  and  grain  by  the  Vaigyas  to  whom  he  furnished 
protection  from  the  enemy  and  the  forces  of  nature;  therefore  it 
was  only  indirectly  that  the  priest  and  the  herdsman  were  related. 

The  warrior  came  to  consciousness  of  himself  and  his  social 
function  through  his  relation  to  the  Brahmans,  on  whom  he  was 
dependent,  and  the  Vaigyas,  who  bore  the  lesser  value  for  him. 
With  the  conquest  there  came  to  be  a  fourth  class — the  conquered 
Dravidians,  who  were  called  Sudras  and  were  practically  slaves. 
Taken  all  in  all,  the  hymns  of  the  Rig- Veda  point  to  this  era  as 
fairly  flexible ;  the  taboo  of  the  social  class  existed  only  with  respect 
to  the  conquered  class;  the  Brahmans,  the  Kshatriyans,  and  Vaig- 
yas  were  united  against  their  common  foe,  the  native  Dra vidian. 
The  caste  system  incipient  in  this  social  order  is  not  realized  until 
they  are  released  from  this  common  danger  and  begin  to  experi¬ 
ence  the  infusion  of  native  elements. 


CHAPTER  II 

TRANSITION  FROM  VEDISM  TO  BRAHMANISM 


To  the  sporadic  investigator  Indian  thought  is  the  symbol 
of  quaint  mysteries  fringing  about  the  ideas  of  God  and  the  soul, 
the  long  journeys  of  the  soul  in  transmigration  from  animal  to 
animal  or  man,  and  its  unique  technique  tending  to  a  life  of  sub¬ 
jective,  negative,  and  pessimistic  countenance.  This  is  quite  at 
variance  with  the  type  of  life  described  in  the  Rig-Veda;  and  at 
once  there  is  projected  the  problem:  How  can  such  conflicting 
views  have  arisen  among  the  same  people  in  the  same  country  ? 

This  subjective,  mystic  form  of  Indian  thought  is  first  met  in 
the  Upanishads — the  records  of  philosophical  Brahmanism.  Be¬ 
tween  the  Rig-Veda  and  the  Upanishads  is  a  period  of  probably 
five  to  ten  centuries.  The  chief  literature  that  comes  in  this 
period  is  made  up  of  later  additions  to  the  Rig-Veda,  Books  IX,  I, 
and  X,  the  Atharva-Veda,  the  Yajur-Veda,  and  the  Brahmanas. 
Social,  political,  and  territorial  changes  have  also  taken  place. 
The  last  Rig-Veda  hymns  indicate  that  the  Aryan  tribes  had  now 
reached  the  Ganges  Valley;  here  they  had  passed  from  a  country 
where  desert  and  river  were  obstacles  to  advance  to  a  land  of 
plenty — a  land  of  hot  sun  and  tropical  products  ready  for  the  tak¬ 
ing.  They  passed  from  a  period  of  struggle  to  one  of  ease.  It  was 
here  also  that  the  tribes  came  into  confederation.  The  Maha- 
bharata,  a  work  undoubtedly  centuries  long  in  construction,  relates 
the  histories  and  struggles  of  the  tribes  which  were  finally  united 
under  the  name  Kurus.  The  composition  of  the  epic  is  thought 
to  have  occupied  the  period  from  the  fourth  century  b.c.  to  the 
fourth  century  a.d.  Some  of  the  Upanishads  were  as  early  as  the 
sixth  century  b.c.  and  some  came  well  within  the  Christian  era. 
The  bharata  is  mentioned  several  times  in  the  Brahmanas.  It 
therefore  seems  safe  to  conjecture  that  the  coalescence  of  the  tribes 
occurred  at  about  the  time  that  they  set  up  permanent  homes  in 
the  western  portion  of  the  Ganges  Valley.  Sanskrit  authorities 
put  the  birthplace  of  the  Atharva-Veda,  of  Brahmanism,  and  of 


25 


26 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


the  epics — the  Mahdbhdrata  and  the  Rdmdyana — in  this  part  of 
the  Ganges  Valley.  The  Rig-Veda  religion  was  the  revelation  of 
poets  and  sages,  utilized  by  a  more  or  less  flexible  order  of  priests. 
The  Upanishads  show  that  the  priesthood  had  now  become  a  firmly 
established  stratum  of  society,  whose  interests  were  jealously 
guarded,  and  whose  sacredness  was  preserved  by  elaborate  social 
restriction.  We  see,  therefore,  that  this  era  of  transition  from  an 
objective,  free  thought  to  a  subjective  and  restricted  thought  was 
marked  by  a  crystallization  of  social  classes,  by  a  unification  of 
political  groups,  and  by  the  establishment  of  permanent  homes 
and  activities. 

A.  DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  CONCEPTION  OF  “BRAHMAN” 

Not  less  marked  were  the  changes  in  content  of  thought.  This 
may  be  traced  in  three  lines  of  development  which  converge  and 
become  identical  in  the  Upanishads.  These  are:  (i)  the  devel¬ 
opment  of  the  Brahman  idea,  (2)  the  monistic  tendency,  and 
(3)  the  growth  of  the  Atman  idea. 

The  word  “brahman”  is  very  old;  it  is  found  everywhere  in 
the  older  collection  of  Rig-Veda  hymns.  Many  scholars  contend 
for  or  against  its  relation  to  the  Zend  word  “baresman”;  there  is 
a  considerable  difficulty  in  the  root-form  transitions,  but  evidence 
on  the  whole  seems  to  favor  this  association.1  Whether  or  not  we 
choose  to  accept  this  etymological  relation,  the  meaning  under¬ 
lying  these  two  words  is  very  similar.  Each  had  originally  an 
objective  significance.  “Thus  baresman  as  a  thing  extended,  lifted 
up,  presented,  is  the  sacred  bundle  of  twigs  in  the  hands  of  the 
Mazdan  priest.  There  is  abundant  evidence  in  the  texts  of  the 
Yasna  that  the  uplifted  baresman  in  the  hands  of  the  priest  was 
regarded  as  an  emblem  of  adoration,  prayer,  and  praise.”2  Through¬ 
out  the  early  Rig-Veda  brahman  is  used  as  hymn  or  song  or 
praise. 

“Him  have  I  sung  with  my  best  song  and  praises  [brahman], 

Indra  of  ancient  birth  and  Everlasting. 

For  prayer  and  songs  [brahman]  in  him  are  concentrated: 

Let  land  wax  mighty  when  addressed  to  Indra.”3 

1  Griswold,  Brahman. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  13. 


3  R.-V.  VI.  38.  3. 


TRANSITION  FROM  VEDISM  TO  BRAHMANISM 


27 


“Of  all  our  hymns  [brahman]  accept  the  invocation, 

List  to  my  prayers  and  hear  the  songs  I  sing  you.”1 

“To  him  your  matchless  mighty  One,  unconquerable  Conqueror, 

Sing  forth  the  prayer  [brahman]  which  gods  have  given.”2 

Here  there  was  no  essential  difference  between  prayer  and  hymn. 
Both  were  addresses  to  the  gods,  ready-made  and  established,  and 
neither  had  subjective  force.  They  were  literally  the  thing  lifted 
up  to  the  gods.  Brahman  then  was  wholly  objective  and  ritual¬ 
istic  in  its  use.  The  Aryans’  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  brahman  is 
illustrated  by  the  following  verse  from  the  Rig- Veda: 

Now  lauded  for  thine  aid,  Heroic  Indra, 

Sped  by  our  prayer,  wax  mighty  in  thy  body.3 

In  the  later  collection  of  the  tenth  book  there  frequently  appears 
the  name  of  Brihaspati,  which  was  equivalent  to  Brahmanaspati. 
This  latter  word  meant  “Lord  of  Prayer.”  The  hymn  or  prayer 
used  in  the  service  came  to  have  such  significance,  its  power  was 
so  prime  in  the  sacrifice  that  it  became  lifted  to  the  rank  of  a 
divinity.  Probably  even  here  Brahman  was  altogether  objective, 
though  it  undoubtedly  points  to  its  later  use  as  the  universal  and 
underlying  value  of  the  spoken  word. 

The  Atharva-Veda  presents  us  with  a  new  conception — brah¬ 
man  is  now  incantation  or  “spell”;  also  brahman  is  “worship.” 
At  this  period  the  magic  formula  or  charm  was  the  method  of  wor¬ 
ship,  hence  the  two  words  can  be  used  interchangeably.  In  each 
case  the  sense  of  the  word  was  still  objective. 

“I  thrust  them  forth  with  mind,  forth  with  intent  and  incantation  [brah¬ 
man]:  forth  with  branch  of  tree,  of  agvattha,  we  thrust  them.”4 

“I  sharpen  up  thy  powers  with  incantation  [brahman].”5 

Likewise  in  this  Veda  brahman  may  mean  the  sacred  word  or  text : 
“For  whom  the  bright  soma  purifies  itself,  adorned  with  sacred  words.”6 

In  the  f  atapatha  Brahmana  the  gods  in  a  quarrel  say  to  each  other: 

Well  then  let  us  try  to  overcome  one  another  by  speech,  by  sacred  unit 
[brahman].7 

1  R.-V.  VI.  69.  4.  4  A.-V.  III.  6.  8.  6  A.-V.  IV.  24.  4. 

2  R.-V.  VIII.  32.  27.  5  A.-V.  III.  2.  5.  7  Cat.  Brah.  I.  5.  4.  6. 

3  R.-V.  VII.  19.  11. 


28  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 

With  the  elaboration  of  the  sacred  texts  and  the  necessity  of 
teaching  them,  the  subjective  sense  of  the  word  emerges,  and  brah¬ 
man  becomes  sacred  knowledge  of  these  texts,  sacred  wisdom. 
From  the  neuter  brahman  early  came  the  masculine  brahman, 
signifying  priest:  thence  the  whole  priesthood  or  social  division 
came  to  be  called  Brahmans.  The  commentaries  on  the  Vedas 
were  called  Brahmanas;  the  religion  itself  was  Brahmanism.  Each 
of  these  took  on  a  sacredness  because  of  its  function  in  relation  to 
brahman.  The  universality  of  the  brahman  idea  developed,  not 
only  in  the  concrete  deity  form  of  Brahmanaspati,  but  in  its  con¬ 
crete  relatedness  to  all  things.  “The  brahman  is  invoker;  the 
brahman  is  the  sacrifice ;  by  brahman  the  sacrificial  posts  are  set 
up ;  the  officiating  priest  is  born  from  brahman ;  within  the  brahman 
is  put  oblation.  The  brahman  is  the  sacrificial  spoon  filled  with 
ghee;  by  brahman  is  the  sacrificial  hearth  set  up;  and  the  brahman 
is  the  essence  of  the  sacrifice — the  priests  that  are  oblation  makers.”1 
Though  Brahmanaspati  was  set  up  beside  the  nature-gods,  he  is 
less  concrete  than  these  earlier  forms;  hence  it  is  not  with  much 
surprise  that  we  follow  its  transition  to  mystic  and  abstract  Brah¬ 
man.  “Whoever  knows  the  brahman  in  man,  they  know  the 
exalted  one.”2  “Where  the  brahman  knowing  gods  worship  the 
chief  Brahman,  whoso  verily  knoweth  them  eye  to  eye,  he  may  be 
a  Brahman,  a  knower.”3  But  abstraction,  universality,  and  unity 
were  brought  all  together  and  approached  the  Upanishad  concep¬ 
tion  of  Brahman,  when  the  seer  said:  “He  who  is  set  over  both 
what  is  and  what  is  to  be  and  everything  and  whoso  alone  is  the 
heaven — to  that  chief  brahman  be  homage.”4  The  Brahmanas 
continue  the  preparing  of  the  way  for  the  Upanishad  Brahman: 
‘‘This  Brahman  has  nothing  before  and  nothing  after  it.”5  “Brah¬ 
man  is  the  self-existent:  reverence  to  Brahman.”6 

Thus  has  been  traced  a  variety  of  changes  in  the  import  of 
brahman:  its  objective  phases  were  hymns,  texts,  spells;  its 
subjective,  sacred  word  or  wisdom — sacred  knowledge;  then  came 
an  approach  to  an  immanent  significance,  kin  to  the  Upanishad 


1  A.-V.  XIX.  42.  1,  2. 

2  A.-V.  X.  7.  17. 

3  A.-V.  X.  7.  24. 


4  A.-V.  X.  8.  1. 

5  Cat.  Brah.  X.  3.  5.  11. 

6  Cat.  Brah.  X.  6.  5.  9. 


TRANSITION  FROM  VEDISM  TO  BRAHMANISM 


29 


idea.  As  corollaries  to  this  development  came  the  rise  of  (1)  brah¬ 
man,  the  masculine,  meaning  priest;  (2)  brahmacarin,  the  vedic 
student;  (3)  Brahman,  the  priesthood  and  caste.  These  corol¬ 
laries  represent  a  correspondent  social  remodeling  of  which  it  will 
be  necessary  to  speak  later. 

B.  THE  MONISTIC  TENDENCY 

Not  less  significant  was  the  growth  of  the  monistic  tendency; 
its  roots  likewise  were  found  in  the  earlier  parts  of  the  Rig-Veda, 
and  its  culmination  was  reached  in  the  Upanishads.  A  study  of 
the  gods  of  the  Rig-Veda  reveals  their  similarity  and  also  the 
paucity  of  their  qualifications.  The  gods  were  rich,  powerful, 
adorable,  healers  of  disease,  preservers  and  givers  of  health  and 
wealth.  The  functions  of  the  particular  god  are  not  clearly  set 
forth.  The  functions  of  one  god  may  differ  as  in  the  case  of  Agni, 
who  was  a  god  of  the  hearth,  god  of  the  sacrifice,  and  god  of  the 
sun-fire.  The  Aryans  make  a  very  general  classification  of  their 
gods,  as  follows:  sky-gods  and  earth-gods,  with  sometimes  gods 
of  the  atmosphere.  The  early  tendency  toward  unity  can  be  seen, 
not  only  in  this  indefiniteness  of  function,  but  in  their  dual  gods — 
such  as  Varuna-Mitra  and  Indra-Varuna.  The  next  step  is  found 
in  the  Vigve  Devas — all-gods;  here  an  overlapping  function  is  rec¬ 
ognized  for  many  gods. 

To  what  is  One,  sages  give  many  a  title: 

They  call  it  Agni,  Yarma,  MatarRvan.1 

In  the  additions  to  the  Rig-Veda  this  one  reality  was  usually  rep¬ 
resented  as  a  great  giant,  Purusha,  sometimes  called  Prajapati. 
He  was  physical,  cosmic  substance  from  which  the  whole  universe 
was  constructed.  This  great  unified  objective  Reality  retained 
his  naive  form  with  great  popularity  throughout  the  Atharva- 
Veda  and  was  recognized  in  the  Brahmanas.  With  this  type  of 
god  begin  the  great  cosmological  questions  “Whence?”  and 
“How?”  Purusha  was  the  victim  of  the  sacrifice;  from  the  drip¬ 
ping  were  formed  the  creatures,  as  well  as  hymns,  spells,  and 
charms.  “The  Brahman  was  his  mouth,  of  both  his  arms  were 


1  R.-V.  I.  164.  46. 


30  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 

the  Rajana  made.  His  thighs  became  the  Vaigya,  from  his  feet 
the  Sudra  was  produced.  The  moon  was  gendered  from  his  mind, 
and  from  his  eye  the  sun  had  birth;  Indra  and  Agni  from  his  mouth 
were  born,  and  Vayu  from  his  breath.”1  It  is  impossible  to  say 
whether  any  significance  can  be  attached  to  the  fact  that  the 
Brahman,  Indra,  Agni,  and  Vayu  all  arise  from  the  same  part  of 
Purusha,  but  the  coincidence,  if  it  is  such,  is  at  least  noteworthy. 
Griffith’s  footnote  to  his  translation  of  this  will  illustrate  the  atti¬ 
tude: 

Purusha,  embodied  Spirit,  or  Man  personified  and  regarded  as  Soul  and 
original  source  of  the  universe,  the  personal  and  life-giving  principle  in  all 
animated  beings,  is  said  to  have  a  “thousand,”  that  is,  “innumerable  heads,” 
“eyes,”  and  “feet,”  as  being  one  with  all  created  life.  “A  space  ten  figures 
wide”:  the  region  of  the  heart  of  man  within  which  the  soul  was  supposed  to 
reside.  Although  as  the  Universal  Soul  he  is  enclosed  in  a  space  of  narrow 
dimensions.2 

This  sort  of  explanation  seems  entirely  too  sophisticated.  The 
majority  of  the  hymns  were  still  addressed  to  nature-gods,  though 
there  were  a  few  hymns  to  Faith,  Unanimity,  New  Life,  and  Liber¬ 
ality;  and  Desire,  Fervor,  and  Asceticism  were  mentioned.  But 
such  spiritual  and  refined  notes  as  these,  that  may  be  interpreted 
as  striking,  were  quite  counterbalanced  by  the  hymns  to  the 
pressing-stones,  hymns  for  the  arresting  of  misfortune,  for  the 
removal  of  a  rival,  for  the  dissipation  of  bad  dreams,  and  other 
magical  performances.  A  hylozoistic  theory  of  nature  is  much 
more  likely  under  these  conditions.  The  earliest  Greek  philoso¬ 
phers  approached  their  problem  in  a  similar  fashion,  as  seen  in 
Thales  and  Anaximander.  The  result  for  the  Greeks  was  a 
beginning  of  science  and  philosophy;  for  the  Hindu,  of  phi¬ 
losophy  alone.  That  is  to  say,  the  construction  side,  science,  was 
wanting. 

Creation  was  the  central  question  in  all  these  early  cosmologi¬ 
cal  discussions.  The  types  of  creation  hypotheses  were  three: 
they  are  constructed  in  analogy  to  (i)  architecture,  (2)  generation, 
(3)  the  sacrifice.  But  the  greatest  of  these  was  the  sacrifice. 

1  R.-V.  X.  90. 

2  Griffith,  The  Hymns  of  the  Rig-Veda ,  II,  527. 


TRANSITION  FROM  VEDISM  TO  BRAHMANISM 


31 


“The  gods  as  offering  on  the  straw, 

Sprinkled  the  first-born  Purusha; 

With  him  the  gods  made  sacrifice, 

The  Rishis  and  the  Sadhayas.”1 

“And,  0  thou  self-existent  [ViQvakarmen]  Strong  one, 

In  offering,  offer  up  thine  own  self.”2 

The  beauty  and  power  of  their  creation  conception  is  best  shown  in 
the  one  hundred  and  twenty-ninth  hymn  of  the  tenth  book  of  the 
Rig- Veda: 

1.  Then  there  was  neither  being  nor  non-being, 

Nor  airy  sphere  nor  heaven  overreaching: 

What  covered  all  ?  and  where  ?  in  whose  protection  ? 

Was  there  sea,  a  deep  abyss  of  water  ? 

2.  Then  was  nor  death  nor  anything  immortal, 

No  night  was  there,  nor  day  of  appearance. 

Breathed  breathless  then  in  self-existence  That  One, 

Other  than  it,  of  any  kind,  there  was  not. 

3.  Darkness  there  was;  and  by  the  darkness  covered 
Was  all  this  world  at  first,  a  wat’ry  chaos; 

A  germ  lay  hidden  in  its  secret  casing, 

Which  by  the  might  of  heat  was  born  as  That  One. 

4.  From  whom  in  the  beginning  love  developed, 

Which  is  the  primeval  germ  of  conscious  spirit: 

The  bond  of  being  on  non-being  seeking 
Poets  with  insight  in  the  heart  discovered. 

5.  Across  all  things  their  measure  line  extended 
What  was  above,  and  what  was  beneath  it  ? 

Seedbearers  were  there  and  developed  forces: 

Beneath,  self-power;  above,  its  revelation. 

6.  But  who  knows,  who  is  able  to  declare  it, 

Whence  sprang  originally  this  creation? 

Afterwards  came  the  gods  into  existence; 

Who  can  know  from  whence  it  had  its  being  ? 

7.  How  this  creation  came  into  existence, 

Whether  as  uncreated  or  created; 

He  who  in  highest  heaven  looks  upon  it 
He  knows  forsooth,  or  does  not  even  He  know  ?3 


1  R.-V.  X.  90.  7. 
3  R.-V.  X.  81.  5. 


3  R.-V.  X.  129. 


32  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 

This  unity  takes  on  an  abstract  character  when  it  comes  to  be 
known  as  Brahmanaspati,  or  as  Vac.  Vac  was  the  god  of  speech 
and  was  addressed  as  immanent,  all-existent  Word.  A  similar 
conception  is  found  in  the  Jewish  Torah  and  in  the  Logos  of  the 
Stoics.  But  these  were  only  stepping-stones  to  the  Brahman  idea 
of  unity. 

This  groping  after  unity  was  fostered  by  the  Atharva-Veda  in 
its  turn.  This  Veda  was  a  re-echoing  of  popular  beliefs  and 
customs  and  a  forecast  of  Brahmanism.  Its  content  was  largely 
spells  and  charms,  intermixed  with  strange  mystical  verses  whose 
atmosphere  was  very  kin  to  the  charms,  but  whose  words  were 
suggestive  of  their  search  for  truth.  The  gods  of  this  Veda  were 
the  same,  but  they  had  lost  their  spontaneity  and  charm,  and  had 
become  puppets  of  hieratic  exhibitions.  Their  individuality  was 
lost,  and  in  its  place  was  the  recognition  of  a  Oneness  which  they 
represented.  “The  Rudra  that  is  in  the  fire,  that  is  within  the 
waters,  that  entered  the  herbs,  the  plants,  that  shaped  all  these 
beings — to  that  Rudra,  to  Agni,  be  homage.”1  The  Atharva-Veda 
hymn  to  the  unknown  god  recalls  the  unsettled  problem  of  the 
Greeks:  “He  who  is  soul-giving,  strength-giving;  of  whom  all,  of 
whom  even  the  gods,  wait  upon  instruction:  who  is  lord  of  the 
bipeds,  who  of  quadrupeds — to  what  god  may  we  pay  worship  with 
oblation.”2  It  was  at  this  point  that  the  monistic  tendency — ex¬ 
pressed  first  in  an  objective  physical  unity — passed  over  into  an 
abstract  unity  that  was  not  the  product  of  sense  experience  but  of 
thought.  It  was  the  search  for  reality  which  had  recognized  a 
principle  of  life  back  of  every  manifestation.  Here  the  monistic 
tendency  coalesced  with  the  fulfilment  of  the  brahman  develop¬ 
ment.  Its  product  was  a  new  religion,  Brahmanism. 

The  Atharva-Veda,  in  which  the  principles  of  Brahmanism 
were  incipient,  had  many  functions;  primarily  it  was  a  means  of 
social  adjustment.  It  gave  formulae  for  settling  disputes  of  rivals; 
it  furnished  a  cure  for  jaundice,  fever,  and  snake  bites;  it  was  a 
love  potion  and  it  instructed  in  religious  customs.  The  following 
is  the  priest’s  prescription  for  jaundice: 

1  A.-V.  VII.  8.  7. 

2  A.-V.  IV.  2.  I. 


TRANSITION  FROM  VEDISM  TO  BRAHMANISM 


33 


Up  to  the  sun  shall  go  thy  heartache  and  thy  jaundice; 

In  the  color  of  the  red  bull  do  we  envelope  thee. 

We  envelope  thee  in  red  tints,  unto  long  life.  May  this 
person  go  unscathed  and  free  of  yellow  color. 

Into  the  parrots,  into  the  ropaniokas  [thrush]  do  we  put 
thy  jaundice:  into  the  haridrava  [yellow  wag-tail]  do  we 
put  thy  yellowness.1 

These  hymns  were  a  panacea  for  every  kind  of  ill.  Symbolism 
flourished  and  the  hocus-pocus  spirit  was  supreme. 

The  Brahmanas  are  a  further  elaboration  of  the  ceremonials 
and  the  spirit  of  the  Atharva-Veda.  Here  springs  full-fledged  that 
greatest  product  of  Hindu  thought — Brahmanism.  Brahmanism 
is  a  new  product  because  its  center  has  shifted  with  respect  both 
to  the  object  and  to  the  form  of  worship.  Brahman  has  replaced 
Indra,  and  naive  proxy  sacrifice  takes  two  forms:  (i)  ritualistic 
Brahmanism,  as  set  forth  in  the  Brahmanas,  and  (2)  philosophical 
Brahmanism,  the  essence  of  the  Upanishads.  The  latter  form 
must  be  reserved  for  a  special  discussion,  but  the  first  can  be  char¬ 
acterized  in  a  few  words.  Ritualistic  Brahmanism  worships  one 
All-Being — somber,  impelling,  lifeless;  it  is  a  means  of  an  exag¬ 
gerated  symbolism  and  a  perfected  and  unimpeachable  ceremonial. 
It  is  sacrifice  and  magic  gone  to  seed. 

In  the  Rig-Veda  the  rajah  is  the  center  of  interest;  for  him  the 
chief  sacrifices  were  maintained  and  the  favorite  god  was  made  in 
his  image.  In  the  Brahmanas  a  suspended  judgment  must  be 
maintained — is  it  brahman  (sacred,  immanent  knowledge)  or  brah¬ 
man  (the  priest),  or  the  sacrifice  itself  that  constitutes  the  real 
center  and  cause  of  ritualistic  Brahmanism?  Most  certainly  the 
priest  has  absorbed  the  power  and  supremacy  of  the  rajah,  and  the 
rajah  is  continually  more  dependent  on  his  purohita  (priest).  All 
life  must  rise  and  fall  by  the  magic  touch  of  the  Brahman. 

Whence  arose  this  tremendous  dominion  of  the  priest?  Two 
new  factors  now  come  into  Aryan  life:  (1)  the  Dravidian  influence 
and  (2)  change  of  language.  Upon  the  advance  of  the  Aryans 
into  the  Ganges  Valley,  and  the  establishment  of  more  permanent 
homes  here,  primitive,  popular  elements  of  religion  and  quaint  social 
procedure  assert  themselves.  This  may  be  due  to  an  infusion  of 
1  A.-V.  I.  22  (Max  Muller  translation). 


34 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


Dravidian  customs,  or  the  relaxed  condition  of  their  own  classes 
may  permit  expression  of  popular  elements.  Possibly  both  postu¬ 
lates  are  in  a  measure  true,  for  the  vedic  Aryans  had  not  gone  many 
paces  from  a  naive  culture,  and  the  Code  of  the  Manu  and  the 
Sutras  bear  testimony  of  an  early  intermingling  with  the  Dravid- 
ians.  Such  an  intermingling  would  increase  the  already  growing 
class-consciousness.  But  the  greater  value  attaches  to  the  second 
factor — change  in  language.  This  may  have  been  indirectly  due 
to  Dravidian  influence,  but,  however  that  may  be,  the  difference  in 
the  spoken  language  and  the  texts  initiated  a  new  institution. 

The  Rig- Veda  apprehended  the  priest  as  a  necessary  but  flex¬ 
ible  agent  of  the  common  good.  His  appreciation  of  his  value  to 
the  sacrifice  would  be  commensurate  with  his  own  success.  These 
priests  undoubtedly  banded  together  later  for  the  purpose  of  col¬ 
laboration  in  perfecting  their  service.  They  were  proficient  in 
knowledge  of  the  sacred  Veda.  Now  came  a  time  when  the  spoken 
language  changed;  this  necessitated  a  new  institution — vedic 
studentship — known  to  the  Hindus  as  Brahmacarya.  This  institu¬ 
tion  was  practically  unknown  during  the  Rig-Veda  period.  Grass- 
man  indicates  that  this  word  occurs  but  once  in  the  Rig-Veda 
texts,  and  that  in  the  latter  part  of  the  tenth  book.1  It  seems  fair 
to  maintain  that  the  vedic  study  had  not  the  importance  that  it 
attained  in  the  Atharva-Veda,  where  there  are  many  references 
to  it.  One  entire  hymn  is  dedicated  to  the  brahmacarin.  As  a 
small  boy  he  is  taken  to  the  home  of  a  teacher  and  becomes  an 
apprentice.  He  enters  with  a  kind  of  initiation  ceremony.  “The 
teacher  taking  him  in  charge  makes  the  vedic  student  an  embryo 
within;  he  bears  him  in  his  belly  three  nights;  the  gods  gather 
unto  him  to  see  him  born  again.”  The  hymn  further  relates  that 
he  wears  an  antelope  skin,  begs,  collects  fuel,  lets  his  hair  grow 
long,  looks  after  the  sacrificial  fires,  and  tends  the  house  of  the 
teacher.  The  period  of  apprenticeship  is  usually  twelve  years, 
at  the  end  of  which  time  he  goes  home  to  marry.  This  period 
has  been  known  to  last  thirty- two  years,  or  even  a  lifetime.  Theo¬ 
retically  this  was  the  program  for  youths  of  the  three  upper  classes, 
all  of  whom  could  be  “twice-born,”  but  in  all  probability  it  was 
seldom  carried  beyond  the  Brahman  caste. 

1  See  Grassman,  Worterbuch  znm  Rig-Veda ,  R.-V.  X.  109.  5. 


TRANSITION  FROM  VEDISM  TO  BRAHMANISM 


35 


This  religious  initiation  may  have  originated  in  more  primi¬ 
tive  and  tribal  initiation.  Such,  at  least,  is  the  belief  of  Lippert. 
He  points  out  that  the  Rajput  lord  was  invested  with  his  authority 
through  the  medium  of  a  forehead  sign  which  was  filled  with  blood 
from  the  toe  or  thumb  of  a  Bheel  (Dra vidian).1  Much  of  the  cere¬ 
mony  was  dropped  and  the  painting  alone  remained.  There  seem 
to  be  no  traces  of  initiation  in  the  earlier  Veda,  but  the  coincidence 
of  the  first  emphasis  upon  the  brahmacarin’s  function  and  the 
revival  of  popular  elements  of  religion  in  the  Atharva-Veda  may 
form  sufficient  basis  for  such  an  assumption.  Later  Hinduism 
contains  survivals  of  such  activities,  but  how  far  back  they  date 
it  is  impossible  to  say.  The  worshipers  of  £iva  and  Vishnu  today 
are  distinguished  by  forehead  signs  somewhat  like  tatoos. 

The  importance  of  the  brahmacarin,  however,  is  not  to  be 
denied.  He  was  the  source  of  resuscitation  of  the  priesthood  and 
assisted  in  its  crystallization.  The  numbers  of  those  who  could 
read  the  Veda  must  have  been  increasingly  fewer;  they  become  a 
class  apart  and  aware  of  their  own  unique  position.  Vedic  stu¬ 
dentship  was  the  means  to  the  most  precious  thing  in  Hindu  life. 
With  this  sacred  knowledge  the  priests  had  power  and  control ;  thus 
in  their  own  beings  they  held  the  key  to  Hindu  life.  This  gave  life 
a  subjective  turn,  which  was  increased  by  the  difference  of  opinion 
which  arose  in  their  discussion  and  interpretations  of  the  texts. 
In  the  beginning  this  discussion  was  greatly  in  disfavor.  The  stu¬ 
dents  were  expected  to  accept  the  knowledge  of  the  teacher  as 
taught.  The  exclusiveness  of  the  Brahmans  is  shown  in  the  occa¬ 
sional  stories  that  are  told  of  lower  classmen  who  desired  to  study 
the  Vedas;  they  were  refused  until  they  could  perform  a  feat  or 
show  in  some  way  their  eligibility.  The  Brahman  is  well  set  off 
by  this  occupation  involving  expert  knowledge  and  is  duly  con¬ 
scious  now  of  this  power. 

This,  then,  brings  us  to  a  conclusion  of  conditions  existent  at 
the  ushering  in  of  Brahmanism.  Caste  had  become  firmly  estab¬ 
lished  through  development  of  occupation,  particularly  the  power 
of  the  priesthood,  and  through  the  distinction  of  conquered  and 
conquerors.  Caste  means  color.  This  custom  of  setting  aside 
the  slave  or  conquered  is  effected  automatically  through  group 

1  Lippert,  Kulturgeschichte ,  II,  348. 


36  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


solidarity.  These  conditions  and  causes  are  summarized  effec¬ 
tively  by  Macdonell,  who  taboos  the  priest.1  This  unified  and 
hardened  social  system  corresponds  to  the  pantheistic  aspect  of 
Brahmanism;  it  is  a  universal  system  of  thought,  covering  the 
monistic  tendency  and  the  abstract  conception  of  Brahman.  Sub¬ 
jectivity  of  thought  is  an  underlying,  fermenting  condition  which 
came  to  real  definition  in  the  Upanishads,  but  partially  through 
this  institution  of  vedic  studentship,  as  just  indicated. 

1  See  Macdonell,  “The  Early  History  of  Caste,”  American  Historical  Review , 
January,  1914. 


CHAPTER  III 
THEORY  OF  THE  SACRIFICE 


The  absorbing  feature  of  the  vedic  worship  was  the  sacrifice; 
it  gained  even  greater  power  in  ritualistic  Brahmanism.  In  the 
latter  the  details  of  the  sacrifice  were  more  important  than  the 
god  invoked.  But  throughout  this  variation  the  purpose  and  con¬ 
ception  underlying  the  sacrifice  remained  the  same.  The  most 
naive  statement  of  its  meaning  is  found  in  the  Atharva-Veda, 
where  primitive  elements  had  been  revived  or  infused  into  the 
experience  of  the  period. 

It  becomes  necessary,  then,  to  study  the  essentials  of  religious 
culture  as  found  in  the  most  primitive  peoples.  Here  there  is  no 
sacrifice  in  the  customary  sense  of  conceiving  sacrifice,  but  a  rite 
involving  all  the  intenseness  and  exactness  of  the  sacrifice. 
These  ceremonials  are  concerned  with  the  clan  totem,  which  may 
be  a  plant  or  an  animal.  A  most  intimate  relation  exists  between 
the  totem  and  the  group — an  identity  of  the  two — a  kind  of  par¬ 
ticipation  that  insures  the  life  of  the  community. 

The  English  expedition  to  the  Strait  of  Torres  gives  confirmation  to 
these  facts.  There  is  a  mystical  affinity  between  the  members  of  a  clan  and 
their  totem.  This  is  an  idea  deeply  impressed  on  them,  and  it  is  evidently 
of  prime  import.  More  than  once  they  have  said  with  emphasis:  augund 
(the  totem)  is  the  same  thing  as  relationship:  the  same  as  family.  They 
admit  a  definite  physiological  and  psychological  resemblance  between  the 
human  members  and  the  animal  members  of  the  clan.  There  is  scarcely 
doubt  that  this  feeling  reacts  on  the  members  of  the  clan,  and  induces  them 
to  live  according  to  the  traditional  character  of  their  totem.  Thus,  accord¬ 
ing  to  what  they  have  told  us,  the  following  clans  are  war-like:  the  cassowary, 
the  crocodile,  the  snake,  the  shark;  the  rayfish,  the  sea-hare  are  peaceful.1 

During  the  communal  ceremony  the  participants  enact  the  scene 
that  they  desire  to  have  follow,  and  they  act  like  the  totem 
animal.  Such  dramatic  activities  precede  the  hunt  or  the  fish¬ 
ing  expedition.  The  totem  is  the  chief  food  or  the  thing  that  had 
at  one  time  been  such.  Through  its  scarcity  the  ceremonial  for 

1  L6vy-Bruhl,  Les  Fonctions  mentales  dans  les  societis  inferieures ,  p.  285. 


37 


38  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


its  increase  arose.  This  is  illustrated  in  Spencer  and  Gillen’s 
very  valuable  study  of  Australian  natives.  The  Intichiuma  cere¬ 
monies  were  of  this  nature.  “The  object  of  increasing  the  num¬ 
bers  of  the  totem  is,  in  all  cases,  such  as  that  of  Hakea  or  Iuriokurs 
or  plum  tree  amongst  the  plants,  or  the  kangaroo,  euro,  lizard, 
snake,  and  so  forth,  amongst  animals,  in  which  the  totemic  animal 
or  plant  is  an  article  of  food,  that  of  increasing  the  food  supply.”1 

The  scarcity  of  the  totem,  and  therefore  the  taboo  placed  upon 
it  as  a  regular  food  source,  gave  it  an  additional  value  at  the  feast 
or  at  the  sacrifice.  Not  only  was  it  a  delicacy  to  the  savage  pal¬ 
ate,  but  it  attained  sanctity  through  its  power  of  reviving  and 
restoring  the  partaker.  Meat,  if  rarely  eaten,  acts  as  a  stimulant. 
The  value  of  food  for  social  unity,  for  personal  gratification,  and 
even  for  relief  for  physical  distress  is  remarkable.  The  human, 
spirit  is  much  more  approachable  after  a  satisfactory  repast. 
Appeals  for  philanthropic  contributions  are  strengthened  by  asso¬ 
ciation  about  a  common  board.  And  it  is  not  wholly  the  bringing 
together  of  numbers,  but  the  satisfaction  gained  from  food  that 
releases  the  spirit,  relaxes  the  attitude,  and  gives  opportunity  for 
play  of  impulse.  “It  is  truer  then  to  say  that  the  object  was 
sacred  because  it  was  eaten  with  satisfaction  than  to  say  it  was 
eaten  because  it  was  sacred  and  because  man  sought  to  worship  it.”2 

But  the  food  was  not  the  only  source  of  stimulation  in  the 
ceremonial.  The  eating  of  the  sacred  feast  was  a  communal  meal; 
the  emotional  element  thus  induced  would  act  also  as  an  enlivener; 
every  ceremonial  was  accompanied  by  gestures  and  language  which 
fixed  the  attention  of  the  listener  and  placed  him  en  rapport  with 
the  participants.  There  always  occurred,  therefore,  a  physical 
and  mental  exhilaration  and  revivification  of  the  worshiper.  The 
growing  significance  of  the  totem,  its  increasing  sacredness,  set 
it  apart  from  the  clan.  It  possessed  a  mysterious  and  magical 
power  that  was  sought  by  the  participant.  Thus  arose  the  gods; 
they  were  facts  set  apart  as  focusing  the  meanings  of  the  clan. 
The  earliest  forms  of  these  were  concerned  with  the  food  supply; 
they  were  natural  forces  that  helped  or  hindered  the  harvests* 

1  Spencer  and  Gillen,  The  Native  Tribes  of  Central  Australia ,  p.  207. 

2  E.  S.  Ames,  Psychology  of  Religious  Experience,  p.  120.  . 


THEORY  OF  THE  SACRIFICE 


39 


Frazer  insists  that  these  forms  were  all  related  to  the  “ corn-spirit.”1 
Earth,  the  seasons,  the  wind,  the  moon,  and  the  sun  were  all 
contributors  to  the  welfare  of  the  tribe.  Curious  survivals  of  this 
are  seen  in  modern  Euporean  planting  ceremonies  and  in  the  insist¬ 
ence  in  many  places  of  planting  on  the  dark  of  the  moon.  The 
primitive  man’s  attitude  toward  all  nature  was  social.  With  the 
building  up  of  the  conception  of  the  person  these  nature-gods  gain 
varying  degrees  of  personification.  The  more  flexible  the  state  of 
society,  the  more  such  an  individualization  occurs.  But  whether 
it  be  the  god-form  or  the  primeval  food-object,  each  maintains 
its  sacredness  because  it  has  the  vital  principle,  the  mana. 

The  taboos  of  the  totem  and  of  the  sacrifice  are  comparable; 
the  Jewish  regulations  concerning  the  meat  from  the  sacrifice  were 
most  severe ;  the  uncleanness  which  attached  to  one  who  had  broken 
the  taboo  must  be  purified  with  its  appropriate  ceremony  before 
contact  with  the  group  could  be  made  again.  The  same  exactly 
is  true  for  the  Indian.  The  sacrifice  was  a  continuation  of  the  old 
totem  meal.  In  the  majority  of  cases  it,  too,  was  communal;  the 
Egyptians,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Hebrews  thus  celebrated  it.  These 
feasts  have  undergone  many  transformations  and  may  seem  to 
have  strayed  far  from  their  original  religious  import,  as  instanced 
in  the  Olympic  games,2  yet  the  essential  fact  remained — the  com¬ 
munal  ideal  and  emotion.  It  is  here  that  a  variation  is  found  in 
Vedism,  and  this  may  be  one  of  the  contributing  factors  to  the 
formation  of  a  special  priesthood  and  to  the  change  in  the  social 
life  that  followed,  as  has  been  suggested  above.  The  Indian  sac¬ 
rifice  was  for  the  high-class  individual  primarily ;  it  has  always  been 
an  aristocratic  religion  that  the  greater  part  of  the  literature  por¬ 
trays.  This  sacrifice  grew  more  complex  with  the  growth  of  a 
special  priesthood;  undoubtedly  these  two  facts  developed  together, 
and  it  would  be  impossible  to  establish  which  was  the  cause  and 
which  the  effect.  The  sacred  hymns  became  elaborate  systems 
of  exercise,  each  detail  of  which  must  be  followed  as  precisely  as 
the  drama  played  at  the  totem  feast.  The  old  means  of  physical 
and  mental  stimulation  remained:  the  animal  sacrifice  was  eaten 
and  the  hymns  were  the  source  of  union  of  mental  attitude  between 

1  See  Frazer,  The  Golden  Bough.  2  See  Jane  Harrison,  Themis. 


40  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 

god  and  worshiper.  Here  usually  the  myth  of  the  hymn  related 
the  life  of  the  god — it  was  a  formulation  of  his  characteristics  and 
powers  which  the  sacrificer  desired  to  take  on.  The  sacrificer 
wanted  the  physical  power,  the  courage  and  success  of  Indr  a,  or 
the  mercy  of  Varuna,  or  the  joy  of  Soma.  So  it  was  that  the  hunter 
ate  the  meat  of  the  lion  or  drank  the  blood  of  the  bear  that  he 
might  be  like  the  lion  and  the  bear.  How  close  is  the  feeling  of 
the  native  who  insists  that  he  is  not  related  to  the  kangaroo  but  is 
the  kangaroo,  and  the  Brahman  priest  who  becomes  a  god  by  vir¬ 
tue  of  his  efficient  action  in  the  sacrifice!  The  priest  recognizes 
his  social  standing  in  the  Pantheon — he  is  a  human  god — and  rec¬ 
ognizes  his  power  of  infusing  new  life  into  the  worshiper  through 
his  utterance  of  the  mystic  symbols  at  the  sacrifice.  He,  too, 
possesses  the  mana. 

Among  the  Indians  the  cow  was  the  principal  sacred  animal; 
other  forms  were  occasionally  used,  but  the  typical  sacrifice  was 
the  cow.  Early  Aryan  nomadic  life  was  suited  to  the  appearance 
of  this  type  of  sacred  animal.  The  Semite  sheep  also  appeared  in 
a  nomadic  background.  Lesser  gifts  might  be  brought  to  the 
Jewish  temple,  such  as  turtledoves.  In  the  same  manner  a  rice 
offering  was  sometimes  made  in  the  Indus  Valley.  When  the 
Aryans  came  to  the  Ganges  Valley  and  took  on  their  new  life  of  a 
more  agricultural  turn,  the  rice  was  frequently  brought,  and  occa¬ 
sionally  a  goat.  The  horse  sacrifice  was  the  privilege  of  the  rajah. 
The  prime  importance  of  the  cow  is  seen  also  in  the  accessories 
of  the  sacrifice,  ghee  (butter)  and  milk.  Each  one  of  these  has 
a  special  function,  being  used  to  pour  into  the  fire  or  to  sanctify 
the  altar  by  being  smeared  over  its  posts.  To  the  Hindu  the 
essentials  of  the  sacrifice  were  (i)  the  cow,  (2)  the  fire,  and  (3)  the 
soma.  Fire  has  always  been  an  object  of  awe  and  attention  and 
has  been  granted  purificatory  and  transforming  power  by  many 
peoples.  It  becomes  an  object  of  worship  itself;  among  the  Indians 
Agni  was  second  only  to  Indra.  It  is  the  chief  god  of  the  priests; 
it  shares  with  him  the  function  of  making  the  god  one  with  the 
worshiper.  It  changes  the  material  sacrifice,  while  the  priest 
through  his  formulae  of  mystic  phrases  centers  the  attention  of 
the  sacrificer.  It  has  been  always  closely  associated  with  the  idea 


THEORY  OF  THE  SACRIFICE 


41 


of  generation.  As  the  early  philosophers  said,  “Through  tapas 
(heat)  was  generation,  creation  began.”  Creation  was  a  sacrifice, 
it  is  to  be  remembered;  and  creation  is  a  becoming  other  than  is. 
Heraclitus  the  Obscure  presents  a  similar  service  of  fire  when  he 
makes  it  the  symbol  of  his  system  of  becoming. 

A  second  factor  of  the  sacrifice  is  soma — the  fermented  juice 
of  the  soma  plant.  In  the  Atharva-Veda  it  is  called  the  “primeval 
soul  of  the  sacrifice.”1  Soma  is  worshiped  as  a  special  divinity 
and  concludes  the  process  of  transformation.  Soma  was  poured 
over  the  sacrifice  and  also  served  as  a  drink  for  the  sacrificer.  Indra 
was  the  great  soma-drinker;  it  was  the  source  of  his  power  and  joy. 
“Indra  who  in  the  wild  delights  of  Soma  juice  considers  well  all 
holy  Laws  among  the  gods.”2  “Indra,  whom  Sacrifice  shall 
strengthen,  Soma,  and  song,  and  hymn  and  praises  and  devotion. 
Whom  dawn  shall  strengthen  when  the  night  departeth,  Indra 
whom  days  shall  strengthen,  months  and  autumns.”3  But  .what 
is  really  here  is  the  reflection  of  the  effervescent  illusion  that  the 
sacrificer  experiences  upon  drinking  the  fermented  soma  juice. 
He  is  re-created  in  this  process;  his  body  is  energized;  his  mind  is 
quickened.  “The  sacrifice  is  a  constant  increasing  of  energy,” 
says  Oltramare.4  This  method  is  more  effective  than  the  simple 
eating  of  food;-  the  results  are  obtained  more  rapidly  and  more 
surely.  Soma  service  was  in  some  senses  an  improvement  over 
the  old  totem  feast.  Where  the  clan  is  beginning  to  break  up,  a 
stronger  agent  is  necessary  to  produce  the  religious  attitude,  either 
from  the  side  of  the  food  and  drink  or  from  that  of  the  hypnotic 
power  of  the  priest  or  medicine  man.  This  is  simply  saying  that 
tenser  methods  must  be  used  for  focusing  attention  upon  “collective 
representations.”  Through  the  sacrifice  there  is  re-established 
an  association  with  the  god.  This  condition  is  most  accurately 
borne  out  in  the  communal  sacrifice,  for  conditions  of  attention 
are  there  easier  to  obtain.  This  attention  reconstructs  the  group 
spirit.  Other  types  of  sacrifice  accomplish  this  in  a  lesser  degree; 
thus  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  the  aristocratic  and  individual 

1  A.-V.  IX.  2. 10.  2  R.-V.  VIII.  32. 28. 

3  R.-V.  VI.  38.  4. 

4  P.  Oltramare,  Les  Idtes  theosophiques  dans  VInde ,  p.  24. 


42 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


religious  service  of  the  Hindus  could  be  as  effective  as  the  more 
concentrated  types. 

But  the  vital  thing  to  be  remembered  is  that  through  the  sacri¬ 
fice  not  only  the  worshiper  but  the  god  comes  to  new  life.  It  is 
not  simply  the  cow,  the  sacred  animal,  that  dies  on  the  altar.  It  is 
the  god  that  gives  up  his  life  that  the  sacrihcer  may  be  born  again. 
Just  as  the  primitive  man  ate  his  totem,  so  the  Semites  ate  their 
god,  testifies  Robertson  Smith.1  This  theory  is  corroborated  for 
the  Greeks  in  the  Dionysius  worship.2  But  it  is  not  necessary  to 
bring  such  analogies  to  support  this  theory  for  Hindu  worship; 
the  Hindu  frankly  tells  you  that  he  eats  his  god.  The  Rig-Veda 
furnishes  many  expressions  of  the  similitude  of  their  favorite  god, 
Indra,  and  the  bull;  furthermore,  Indra  is  called  the  bull,  is  identi¬ 
fied  with  the  bull.  Then  it  is  Indra  as  well  as  the  bull  that  dies  on 
the  altar.  “ Sacrificial  butter  he  bears;  ghee  is  his  seed;  thousand¬ 
fold  prosperity— that  they  call  the  sacrifice:  the  bull,  clothing 
himself  in  Indra’s  form — let  him,  O  gods,  come  propitious  to  us, 
being  given.  Indra’s  force,  Vanina’ s  two  arms,  the  Alvins’  two 
shoulders,  of  the  Maruts  his  hump:  they  who  are  wise,  poets,  who 
are  skillful  call  him  Brihaspati  brought  together.”3  The  god  is 
not  fully  destroyed  on  the  altar;  this  same  hymn  tells  us  that  the 
“ sacrifice  burns  him  not.”  The  sacrifice  is  a  means  of  transform¬ 
ing,  making  better;  it  permits  the  giving  out  of  the  life-principle 
which  is  in  everything  and  can  never  be  destroyed,  though  it  may 
be  transformed.  “Do  ye,  releasing  the  seed  of  the  being,  assign 
progress  to  the  sacrificer,  0  gods.”4  This  form  of  worship  illus¬ 
trates  the  oneness  of  all  life  quite  as  much  as  the  totem  belief. 
Man  and  god  are  not  clearly  discriminated  here;  nor  are  the  animal 
and  the  god  distinguished  clearly,  which  is  a  conception  no  more 
singular  than  the  totem  idea. 

The  greatest  product  of  the  sacrifice  is  a  re-created  god.  The 
god  rises  out  of  his  ashes  a  different  and  greater  manifestation  of 
the  life-principle.  Not  that  these  worshipers  are  conscious  of  the 
thing  that  happens,  at  least,  fully  conscious.  The  life-principle  is 

1  See  Robertson  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites. 

2  Cf.  Jane  Harrison,  Themis. 

3  A.-V.  IX.  4.  7.  8.  4  A.-V.  II.  34.  2. 


THEORY  OF  THE  SACRIFICE 


43 


a  felt-something  back  of  everything  which  gains  different  forms  at 
different  times.  The  process  is  quite  a  subjective  one  and  is  merely 
induced  by  the  sacrificer.  Through  the  process  of  the  sacrifice  the 
worshiper  is  put  in  an  attitude  or  mood  that  fosters  reconstructive 
thought.  That  is  to  say,  he  is  made  one  with  his  group  and  is 
placed  in  an  emotional  attitude  which  fosters  conceptional  activity. 
Out  of  this  mental  state  a  new  conception  or  feeling  of  divinity 
emerges.  This  takes  the  line  of  least  resistance;  that  is,  it  is  formu¬ 
lated  by  his  social  situation  and  social  needs  and  desires.  The  old 
concept  dies  to  give  place  to  the  new;  the  god-form  dies  to  be  res¬ 
urrected  in  new  form  in  due  time.  It  is  not  a  coincidence  that  it 
was  at  the  season  of  the  Feast  of  the  Passover  that  the  Christ  died 
and  was  raised  again  on  the  third  day.  Without  such  death  and 
resurrection,  without  such  remodeling  of  group-consciousness,  we 
should  indeed  perish. 

It  is  through  such  an  evolution  of  group-consciousness  with  the 
sacrifice  as  its  vehicle  that  Indian  religious  thought  has  come. 
The  sacrifice  was  the  vehicle  of  the  development  of  the  monistic 
tendency — that  long  journey  from  Indra  to  Prajapati  and  Brah- 
manaspati.  The  sacrifice  also  transformed  the  life-principle  (after 
centuries  of  experiment)  from  a  cosmic  energy  to  a  sacred  wisdom 
that  dwells  not  with  every  individual,  it  is  true,  but  within  the 
revered  priest. 

But  it  is  now  that  a  change  occurs  in  the  valuation  and  conse¬ 
quently  in  the  function  of  the  sacrifice  in  the  development  of  Hindu 
thought.  The  Indian  priests  began  to  recognize,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  that  the  secret  of  their  power  lay  in  their  control 
of  the  sacrifice;  for  the  sacrifice  had  been  the  source  of  inspiration 
and  spiritual  renewal,  as  also  of  material  goods.  The  priesthood 
in  seeking  for  the  means  of  perfecting  its  vocation  came  to  center 
attention  upon  the  sacrifice.  Whenever  an  activity,  social  or  indi¬ 
vidual,  becomes  the  victim  of  introspection  and  analysis,  it  suffers 
the  fate  of  a  dissected  organism;  life  escapes  and  only  the  skeleton 
and  mute  organs  remain.  It  is  with  this  feeling  that  H.  Fielding 
Hall  writes,  “  Forms  and  ceremonies  are  but  the  tombs  of  dead 
truths.”  This  consciously  or  unconsciously  introspective  attitude 
of  the  priesthood  is  evidenced  by  the  development  during  this 


44 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


period  of  the  caste  system  from  the  freer  classes  of  society  of 
earlier  times.  Thus,  with  ritualistic  Brahmanism,  Hindu  experi¬ 
ence  reaches  a  stage  of  arrested  development. 

SACRIFICIAL  OR  RITUALISTIC  BRAHMANISM 

Up  to  this  point  Hindu  life  had  been  of  one  growth;  social  con¬ 
ditions  had  been  changing  and  religious  ideas  maturing.  This 
arrestment  appears  (i)  in  social  conditions,  (2)  in  the  type  of  god- 
conception,  (3)  in  the  form  of  worship.  In  the  first  case,  social 
distinction,  friction,  and  competition  became  the  subject  of  rigid 
definition  and  law,  which  was  framed  in  the  Grihya  Sutras  and  the 
Code  of  Manu.  This  was  the  formulation  of  the  caste  system, 
which  is  a  perfected  social  habit  against  which  there  is  no  power 
of  reconstruction.  In  the  second  case,  the  religious  culmination 
in  pantheism  illustrates  a  completed  concept.  There  is  no  element 
within  such  a  being  that  is  imperfect  and  that  could  be  a  factor 
in  reconstruction.  Pantheism  is  an  empty  universal,  just  as  caste 
is.  In  the  third  place,  the  method,  the  sacrifice,  became  an  end 
in  place  of  a  means  of  worship;  the  mechanism  itself  gradually 
became  the  center  of  interest;  the  sacrifice  became  so  elaborate 
and  so  completely  defined,  so  unchangeable  in  every  point,  that 
again  progress  was  impossible. 

In  the  Rig- Veda  the  sacrifice  had  been  pretty  flexible;  it  lent 
itself  to  the  whims  and  inspiration  of  the  priest  and  worshiper, 
and,  as  stated  before,  it  was  the  vehicle  of  changing  conceptions 
and  of  progress  and  of  religious  consciousness.  With  ritualistic 
Brahmanism  there  is  a  transition.  In  the  Atharva-Veda,  and  the 
Brahmanas  particularly,  Brahman  had  been  identified  with  every¬ 
thing — the  gods,  the  earth  and  its  elements,  the  visible  heavens, 
unseen  forces — that  is  to  say,  everything  objective.  In  ritualistic 
Brahmanism  the  Brahman  of  the  Upanishads  had  not  completely 
emerged,  and  the  old  gods  were  fast  losing  their  hold.  These  gods 
were  brought  to  earth  and  made  to  assume  the  function  of  the  priest; 
Indra,  Agni,  Varuna,  Savitar,  and  the  other  gods  in  turn  are  made 
to  officiate  at  the  sacrifice  just  as  the  priest  would  do.  “  ‘Agni’s 
priestly  duty,  that  means  salvation’ — the  means  of  salvation 
assuredly  is  the  sacrifice;  ‘may  he  know  the  sacrifice’  is  what  he 


THEORY  OF  THE  SACRIFICE 


45 


thereby  says.”1  The  next  step  is  taken  when  the  tables  are  turned 
and  the  priests  are  called  human  gods.  “  And  this  the  true  knowl¬ 
edge  belongs  to  the  gods  alone,  and  indeed  whoever  knows  this  is 
not  a  man,  but  one  of  the  gods.”2  “For  to  the  Brahman  belongs 
the  fulfilment  of  wishes;  it  is  with  the  fulfilment  of  wishes  he  (Brah¬ 
man)  thus  endows  him  (the  sacrifice).”3  Thus  the  gods  and  priests 
are  put  on  a  par.  The  priests  had  been  the  adjusters  and  commen¬ 
tators  on  the  sacrifice.  They  perfected  it,  until  finally  came  the 
idea  that  the  formulae  of  the  sacrifice  must  not  be  changed  in  the 
slightest  manner.  It  became  all-perfect,  all-wise,  and  all-powerful. 
Neither  gods  nor  men  could  trifle  with  it.  “The  sacrifice  fled 
away  from  the  gods.  The  gods  called  out  after  it,  ‘Listen  to 
to  us!  come  back  to  us!’  It  replied,  ‘So  be  it!’  and  returned  to  the 
gods;  and  with  what  had  thus  returned  to  them,  the  gods  wor¬ 
shiped;  and  by  worshipping  with  it  became  the  gods  they  now 
are.”4  “The  sacrifice  came  to  be;  it  came  to  be  here;  it  was  propa¬ 
gated;  it  increased  again;  it  became  overlord  of  the  gods;  let  it 
assign  wealth  to  us.”5  But  the  chief  argument  for  the  supremacy 
of  the  sacrifice  in  this  period  is  the  small  emphasis  that  is  given  the 
gods,  the  want  of  consideration  of  the  habits,  lives,  and  character¬ 
istics  of  the  gods.  They  become  figureheads.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  sacrifice  is  the  only  topic  of  discussion;  to  know  its  details 
completely  and  to  follow  these  exactly  is  the  whole  duty  of  the 
priest.  The  sacrificial  activity  has  become  an  abstraction;  its 
content,  the  gods,  has  been  lost  or  rendered  worthless.  The  sac¬ 
rifice  is  no  longer  a  device  for  renovating  the  gods. 

Already  the  priests  had  emphasized  knowledge  of  the  Veda,  and 
the  brahmacarin’s  function  increased  this  value.  Prior  to  this 
time  they  had  had  a  meager  conception  of  brahman  as  knowl¬ 
edge,  but  even  this  knowledge  had  been  more  objective  than  sub¬ 
jective.  Knowledge  was  erudition;  it  was  a  thing  taught,  a  thing 
taken  in,  not  a  thing  wrought  out  of  the  experience  of  the  thinker. 
This  knowledge  was  like  the  initiation  sign  on  the  forehead;  it 
served  to  catalogue  or  classify  him  with  a  certain  “twice-born” 

1  Cat.  Brah.  I.  5.  2.  1. 

2  Cat.  Brah.  X.  3.  5.  13.  4  Cat.  Brah.  I.  5.  2.  6. 

3  Cat.  Brah.  XIII.  1.  5.  6.  5  A.-V.  VII.  5.  2. 


46 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


group,  and  put  him  en  rapport  with  the  group;  it  developed  his 
class-consciousness.  The  transition  from  the  stress  upon  sacri¬ 
ficial  activity  to  emphasis  upon  knowledge  of  the  sacrifice  is  made 
through  the  prevalent  symbolism  of  the  period. 

“ Verily,  this  sacrifice  is  the  same  as  this  blowing  [wind,  soul];  it  is  this 
that  they  wish  to  secure  who  take  the  vow  of  initiation  for  a  year.”1  “Verily, 
the  Agnihotri  cow  is  the  speech  of  the  Agnihotri  and  her  calf  is  its  mind.  Now 
these,  mind  and  speech,  whilst  being  one  and  the  same,  are,  as  it  were,  distant 
from  each  other:  therefore  they  tie  up  the  calf  and  its  mother  with  one  and  the 
same  rope;  and  the  fire,  indeed,  is  faith,  and  the  ghee,  truth.”2  “Now  there¬ 
fore  it  would  seem  to  follow  that  both  he  who  knows  this  [the  true  meaning  of 
the  syllable  Om],  and  he  who  does  not,  perform  the  same  sacrifice.  But  this 
is  not  so,  for  knowledge  and  ignorance  are  different.  The  Sacrifice  which  a 
man  performs  with  knowledge,  faith,  and  the  Upanishad  is  more  powerful.”3 
“Considering  sacrifice  and  good  works  as  the  best,  these  fools  know  no  higher 
good,  and  having  enjoyed  their  reward  on  the  height  of  heaven  gained  by  good 
works,  they  enter  into  this  world  or  a  lower  one.  Let  a  Brahman,  after  he  has 
examined  all  these  worlds  which  are  gained  by  works,  acquire  freedom  from 
desires.”4 

Modern  commentaries  suggest  that  this  efficacy  of  knowledge 
rather  than  works  was  the  conception  of  the  sages  or  sannyasins. 
But  this  knowledge  is  still  quite  as  objective  as  the  formulae  and 
rites  of  sacrifice.  Indian  thought  is  not  yet  subjective;  it  is  only 
arriving  at  a  condition  where  subjectivity  is  possible.  The  devel¬ 
opment  of  caste,  the  change  of  language  and  the  ensuing  rise  of 
vedic  studentship,  and  the  hardening  and  elaborating  of  sacri¬ 
ficial  formulae  were  all  elements  that  paved  the  way  for  a  subjec¬ 
tive  type  of  thought,  but  could  not  produce  it. 

All  these  facts  centered  about  one  class  of  people  and  were 
initiated  by  them — the  priests;  the  Brahman’s  influence  was 
largely  responsible  for  caste  even  though  we  accept  its  growth 
as  unconscious — and  through  them  the  ritual  gained  its  value. 

Everywhere  they  express  the  conservative  element  of  life. 
Such  conditions  are  not  found  in  either  Hebrew  or  Egyptian  priest¬ 
hood,  each  a  case  of  a  powerful  priesthood.  It  must  be  conceded 
that  in  every  class  of  people  there  is  a  conservative  element,  and 
such  conservation  is  often  vital  to  the  life  of  a  people.  The  pro- 

1  Cat.  Brah.  I.  i.  i.  3  Chandogya  Up.  I.  i.  io.  8. 

2  Cat.  Brah.  XI.  3.  1.  1.  4  Mundaka  Up.  I.  2.  10.  12. 


THEORY  OF  THE  SACRIFICE 


47 


tection  of  moral  and  religious  ideals  of  a  people  is  as  necessary  as 
their  food  supply,  and  such  protection  is  the  duty  of  a  priesthood; 
yet  there  must  also  be  regeneration  of  religious  and  social  ideas, 
and  this  may  likewise  be  the  duty  or  opportunity  of  the  priest¬ 
hood.  It  was  the  prophets  of  Israel  that  led  them  to  moral 
consciousness  and  that  chose  a  king  and  leader  when  political 
conditions  demanded  a  change.  In  Egypt  the  priesthood  was  an 
integral  part  of  common  life  and  not  set  apart  as  in  India.  The 
Egyptian  priest  was  treasurer  and  high  counselor  of  state  as  well 
as  a  religious  official  and  was  therefore  interested  in  all  matters  re¬ 
lating  to  the  people  and  the  state.  Later  the  Pharaoh  was  recog¬ 
nized  as  the  high  priest,  and  he  alone  dared  to  enter  yearly  the  Holy 
of  Holies  and  worship  for  the  people.  Gods  were  made  and  fell  at 
his  dictate.  This  union  of  state  and  religion  seemed  to  keep  the 
priests  active  and  alive  to  the  needs  of  the  people.1  Not  so  in 
India;  and  its  history  from  ritualistic  Brahmanism  to  the  invasion 
of  the  Mohammedans  is  a  story  of  unsuccessful  effort  at  recon¬ 
struction.  It  is  with  the  beginnings  of  these  attempted  innova¬ 
tions  that  we  find  the  rise  of  subjectivity. 

1  Steindorff,  Religion  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians. 


CHAPTER  IV 

PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 

The  first  of  the  innovators  were  probably  princes  and  kings 
from  the  eastern  portion  of  the  Ganges  Valley.  Ritualistic  Brah¬ 
manism  and  the  epics  were  the  products  of  the  older  settlement 
along  the  banks  of  the  upper  Ganges.  The  idea  that  for  a  time 
threatened  this  old  order  of  things  was  the  atman  conception. 
Around  this  idea  moves  that  first  revolt  known  as  philosophical 
Brahmanism.  Some  writers  see  in  this  movement,  not  a  revolt, 
but  a  simple  refinement  of  earlier  thought.  The  following  pages 
are  intended  to  show  that  every  phase  of  the  situation  points  to 
these  as  a  revolt. 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  THE  ATMAN  IDEA 

The  Sanskrit  word  atman  has  had  an  interesting  history;  it  has 
had  a  long  history,  but  the  Upanishad  meaning  is  a  late  develop¬ 
ment.  It  has  been  suggested  that  atman  comes  from  the  root  an , 
which  means  “to  breathe.”  As  such  it  would  be  associated  with 
prana  and  its  various  forms,  and  this  really  happens.  The  word 
is  found  a  number  of  times  in  the  Rig-Veda;  in  the  earlier  hymns  it 
had  the  physical  and  objective  sense  entirely.  It  is  not  strange 
that  such  an  association  should  have  been  made  with  respect  to 
self  and  spirit.  The  majority  of  primitive  peoples  are  concerned 
with  the  breathing  process  and  its  relations  to  life.  Grassman 
states  that  the  Rig-Veda  gives  atman  five  differentiations;  the 
greatest  of  these  is  breath. 

“Come  like  vital  air  [atman]  to  bodies.”1 

“The  wind,  thy  breath  [atman],  hath  sound  through  the  region 
Like  a  wild  beast  that  seeks  his  food  in  pastures.”2 

These  passages  show  its  very  close  relation  to  the  gods  Vayu 
and  Vata,  the  first  of  which  represents  the  god,  the  second  the 
element;  both  are  here  objective,  but  their  use  is  sufficient  to  indi- 


1  R.-V.  I.  37.  7. 


^  R.-V.  VII.  87. 2. 
48 


PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 


49 


cate  their  active  relation  to  nature.  The  fact  that  there  are  two 
gods  for  one  phenomenon  may  indicate  two  types  of  conception, 
the  one  freer  and  more  comprehensive,  a  step  nearer  a  spirituali¬ 
zation  than  the  other.  A  finer  degree  of  feeling  is  shown  in  the 
following:  here  it  is  essentially  the  body-breath,  the  life-breath: 

“Where  is  the  blood  of  earth,  the  life  [atman],  the  spirit.”1 

“Raiment  is  body,  food  [atman]  is  life,  and  healing  ointment 
giveth  strength.”2 

“The  Sun  receive  thine  eye,  the  wind  [atman]  thy  Spirit.”3 

It  is  the  later  collection  of  the  Rig-Veda  that  is  particularly  respon¬ 
sible  for  this  advance;  and  the  third  conception  of  life-principle  or 
life-spirit  includes  the  idea  of  energy  or  power.  It  is  now  the  ele¬ 
ment  that  moves  things,  that  keeps  them  going;  it  is  still  an  objec¬ 
tive  aspect. 

“The  soul  [atman]  of  all  that  moveth  not  or  moveth.”‘» 

“He  holds  the  life  [atman]  of  all  things  fixed  and  moving.”3 

This  life-principle  has  not  yet  dropped  its  magical  nature, 
because  the  priest  plainly  used  it  with  respect  to  his  priestly  fee 
(guerdon),  and  also  for  the  soma  which  is  called  “the  soul  of  the 
sacrifice.”  Grassman’s  fourth  use  of  atman  is  as  the  spirit  of 
sickness.  This  is  a  rare  usage,  but  not  unimportant  when  com¬ 
pared  with  the  history  of  the  thought  of  other  primitive  people. 
Dreams  and  disease  are  two  of  the  most  important  factors  in  the 
life  and  movement  of  early  man.  The  dream-factor  is  the  result 
of  the  breath  or  soul  of  another  man  which  has  been  freed  by  sleep 
and  which  visits  the  first  in  his  “dream.”  This  can  wander  to 
and  fro  at  will.  Some  tribes  believe  that  the  breath  has  various 
parts  and  that  some  of  these  parts  leave  the  body  during  sickness — 
or  else  it  is  a  new  part  that  comes.6 

When  bringing  back  the  vanished  strength, 

I  hold  these  herbs  within  my  hand 
The  spirit  [atman]  of  disease  departs 
Ere  he  can  seize  upon  the  life.7 

1  R.-V.  I.  164.  4. 

2  R.-V.  VIII.  3-  24. 

3  R.-V.  X.  16.  3. 

4  R.-V.  I.  115.  r. 


s  R.-V.  VII.  6.  101 . 

6  See  Grassman,  Worterbuch  zum  Rig-Veda. 

7  R.-V.  X.  97.  11. 


50  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 

The  fifth  sense  of  the  word  is  a  living  body;  this  suggests  Pra- 
japati,  the  god  of  cosmic  energy,  but  likewise  a  living  body;  how¬ 
ever,  it  is  impossible  to  say  whether  there  is  any  relation  between 
the  universal  and  individual  aspects  here. 

Let  Vrita  slaying  Indra  drink  Soma  by  Saryanavan’s  side 
Storing  up  vigour  in  his  heart  [atman],  preparing  to  do  heroic  deeds.1 

The  Atharva-Veda  does  not  advance  these  theories  very  far; 
it  vacillates  between  the  more  magical  uses  of  the  breath  and  mys¬ 
tical  phrases  that  presage  atman  as  soul. 

“May  I  win  a  horse,  a  cow,  a  soul  [atman],  O  man.”2 

“Free  from  desire,  wise,  immortal,  self-existent,  satisfied  with  sap, 

Not  deficient  in  any  respect,  knowing  that  wise,  imaging  young  soul 
[atman] — one  is  not  afraid  of  death.”3 

“Again  let  breath,  again  let  soul  [atman]  come  unto  us.”4 

This  same  struggle  between  conceptions  is  felt  in  the  Brahmanas 
and  even  in  the  Upanishads.  Their  hocus-pocus  use  of  prana  and 
the  essence  of  being  as  expressed  in  atman  are  strange  compari¬ 
sons.  The  Brahmanas  furnish  a  whole  family  of  pranas.5  The 
breath  is  divided  into  six  or  seven  parts.  Some  depart  during 
sleep,  others  during  exhaustion,  the  last  at  death.  There  is  the 
in-breathing  and  the  out-breathing,  the  up-breathing,  and  the  down¬ 
breathing,  the  forward-breathing  and  the  back-breathing,  and  others 
like  unto  them.  Each  kind  of  breathing  has  its  special  function 
in  the  sacrifice.  The  priest  must  breathe  in  a  certain  fashion  when 
he  lighted  the  fire,  in  another  way  when  he  poured  on  the  soma 
juice.  This  matter  of  breathing  was  as  important  as  any  other 
part  of  the  sacrificial  formulae  and  might  quite  as  easily  interfere 
with  its  service.  This  degradation  of  a  useful  function  corre¬ 
sponded  to  other  practices  of  the  period.  That  the  conception  is 
still  quite  physical  and  objective  the  Qatapatha  Brahmanas  bear 
witness.  “The  Yagus  is  the  breath,  for  whilst  moving  it  gener¬ 
ates  everything  here.”6  “Yagus  is  no  other  than  Vayu.”7  Vayu, 

1  R.-V.  IX.  1 13. 1. 

2  A.-V.  IV.  9.  7. 

3  A.-V.  X.  8.  44* 

4  A.-V.  VI.  53.  2. 


5  Cf.  Ewing,  J.A.O.S.  XXII. 

6  Cat.  Brah.  X.  3.  5.  4. 

7  Cat.  Brah.  X.  3.  5.  1. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 


51 


it  must  be  remembered,  was  the  rig-vedic  god  of  the  wind.  Com¬ 
pare  with  this  the  hymn  to  Vayu  of  several  centuries  earlier,  “  Germ 
of  the  World,  the  deities’  vital  Spirit,  this  god  moves  ever  as  his 
will  inclines  him;  his  voice  is  heard,  his  shape  is  ever  newless.”1 

But  the  voice  of  the  companion  of  Yagus  is  making  itself  heard, 
even  if  it  is  yet  feeble.  There  is  a  soul  of  “mystic  import”  that  is 
trying  to  define  its  own  meaning  as  well  as  to  impart  it.  Its  value 
does  not  depend  upon  an  act  of  sacrifice,  but  upon  its  own  inner 
being.  It  is  knowledge,  and  it  is  the  great  eternal  principle,  which 
as  yet  is  unknown  and  defined.  The  one  who  gains  the  secret  of 
this  is  ready  for  eternal  life — he  ranks  with  the  gods. 

“Who  is  the  one  god?  Breath  and  he  is  Brahman  and  they  call  him 
That  [atman].”2  “But  indeed  the  manifestation  is  Yagus,  and  thus  with 
ever  so  small  a  yagus  formula,  the  Atharvyu  draws  a  cup  of  Soma,  that  essence 
is  equal  to  both  the  Stotra  and  Sastra,  and  comes  up  to  both  the  Stotra  and 
Sastra:  hence,  however  small  the  essence  of  food,  it  benefits  the  whole  food 
and  pervades  the  whole  food.  Satiation  doubtless  is  the  successful  issue 
thereof :  hence  when  one  is  satiated  by  food  he  feels  like  one  who  has  succeeded. 
And  joy,  the  knowledge  thereof  [essence  is  mystic  import],  is  its  soul  [self — 
atman];  and  assuredly,  all  gods  are  of  joyful  soul;  and  this  the  true  knowledge, 
belongs  to  the  gods  alone,  and  indeed  whoever  knows  this  is  not  a  man,  but 
one  of  the  gods.”3 

On  reaching  the  philosophic  movement  known  as  the  Upani- 
shads,  the  interpretation  becomes  much  more  confused  and  per¬ 
plexing.  The  several  Upanishads  do  not  agree  with  each  other  on 
the  use  of  atman,  nor  is  there  always  uniformity  throughout  a 
single  Upanishad.  The  problem  is  everywhere  concerning  the 
nature  of  Brahman  and  his  manifestations;  they  find  him  in  every¬ 
thing;  he  reveals  himself  in  all  nature  but  assumes  various  forms. 
These  meanings  range  from  prana  (breath),  knowledge  of  the  sac¬ 
rifice,  ether,  or  the  spirit  of  dreams  to  the  idea  of  self  as  perceiving, 
thinking,  meditating.  The  Aitareya  Aranayaka  Upanishad,  the 
language  of  which  quite  resembles  a  Brahmana,  gives  Brahman 
as  Prana. 

Mahidasa  Aitareya,  who  knew  this,  said,  “I  know  myself  [reaching]  as 
far  as  the  gods,  and  I  know  the  gods  [reaching]  as  far  as  me.  For  these  gods 
receive  their  gifts  from  hence,  and  are  supported  from  hence.”  This  is  the 

1  R.-V.  X.  168.  4.  2  Bfihad.  Up.  III.  9.  9.  3  Cat.  Br&h.  X.  3.  5.  12-13. 


52 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


mountain,  that  is  to  say,  eye,  ear,  mind,  speech,  and  breath.  They  call  it  the 
mountain  of  Brahman.  He  [the  Prana  is  identified  with  Brahman]  is  the  life, 
the  breath;  he  is  being  [while  the  givatman  remains],  and  not-being  [when  the 
givatman  departs].  “Downwards  and  upwards  he  [the  wind  of  the  breath] 
goes,  held  by  food;  for  this  up-breathing,  being  held  back  by  the  down-breathing, 
does  not  move  forward  [and  leave  the  body  altogether].”  “The  immortal 
dwells  with  the  mortal”;  ....  for  through  him  [the  breath]  all  this  dwells  to¬ 
gether,  the  bodies  being  clearly  mortal,  but  this  being  [the  breath],  being  im¬ 
mortal.  These  two  [body  and  breath]  go  forever  in  different  directions  [the 
breath  moving  the  senses  of  the  body,  the  body  supporting  the  senses  of  the 
breath:  the  former  going  upwards  to  another  world,  the  body  dying  and  re¬ 
maining  on  earth].  They  increase  the  one  [the  body]  but  they  do  not  increase 
the  other,  that  is,  they  increase  these  bodies  [by  food],  but  this  being  [breath]  is 
immortal.  He  who  knows  this  becomes  immortal  in  that  world  [having  become 
united  with  Hiranyagarba],  and  is  seen  as  immortal  [in  the  sun]  by  all  beings, 
yea,  by  all  beings.1 

The  Kaushltaki  Upanishad  also  recognizes  breath  as  Brahman,  or 
the  individual  (atman)  expression  of  Brahman: 

Prana  [breath]  is  Brahman,  thus  says  Paingya.  And  in  that  prana,  which 
is  Brahman,  the  eye  stands  firm  behind  speech,  the  ear  behind  the  eye,  the 
mind  stands  firm  behind  the  ear,  and  the  spirit  behind  the  mind.  To  that 

prana,  which  is  Brahman,  all  these  deities  bring  an  offering,  though  he  asks 

not  for  it,  and  thus  to  him  who  knows  this,  all  creatures  bring  an  offering, 
though  he  asks  not  for  it.2 

The  more  magical,  sacrificial  element  is  seen  in  the  following: 

He  who  knows  this  self  which  consists  of  sight,  hearing,  metre,  wind,  and 
speech,  as  like  unto  syllables,  has  sons,  cattle,  and  lives  his  full  age.3 

Or  the  true  self  may  be  revealed  through  the  dream  state : 

These  true  desires,  however,  are  hidden  by  what  is  false;  though  the  desires 
be  true,  they  have  a  covering  which  is  false.  Thus,  whoever  belonging  to  us 

has  departed  this  life,  him  we  cannot  gain  back,  so  that  we  should  see  him 

with  our  eyes.  Those  who  belong  to  us,  whether  living  or  departed,  and  what¬ 
ever  else  there  is  which  we  wish  for  and  do  not  obtain,  all  that  we  find  there 
[if  we  descend  into  our  heart,  where  Brahman  dwells,  in  the  ether  of  the  heart]. 
There  are  all  our  true  desires,  hidden  by  what  is  false.  As  people  who  do  not 
know  the  country,  walk  again  and  again  over  a  gold  treasure  that  has  been 
hidden  somewhere  in  the  earth  and  do  not  discover  it,  thus  do  all  these  crea- 

1  Aitareya  Aranyaka  Upanishad  I.  8.  2,  3,  5,  11-14. 

2  Kaushltaki  Upanishad  II.  2. 

3  Aitareya  Aranayaka  Upanishad  III.  2.  2.  9. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 


53 


tures  day  after  day  go  into  the  Brahman  world  [they  are  merged  in  Brahman, 
while  asleep],  and  yet  do  not  discover  it,  because  they  are  carried  away  by 
untruth  [they  do  not  come  to  themselves,  i.e.,  they  do  not  discover  the  true 
Self  in  Brahman,  dwelling  in  the  heart].1 

A  more  refined  interpretation  is  to  be  found  in  the  more  truly 
philosophic  Upanishads,  the  Chandogya  and  the  Katha  and  Sve¬ 
tas  vatara  Upanishads: 

All  this  is  Brahman.  Let  a  man  meditate  on  that  [visible  world]  as 
beginning,  ending,  and  breathing  in  it  [the  Brahman].  Now  man  is  a  creature 
of  will.  According  to  what  his  will  is  in  this  world,  so  will  he  be  when  he  has 
departed  this  life.  Let  him  therefore  have  this  will  and  belief:  the  intelligent, 
whose  body  is  spirit,  whose  form  is  light,  whose  thoughts  are  true,  whose 
nature  is  like  ether  [omnipresent  and  invisible],  from  whom  all  works,  all 
desires,  all  sweet  odours  and  tastes  proceed;  he  who  embraces  all  this,  who 
never  speaks  and  is  never  surprised,  he  is  myself  within  the  heart,  smaller 
than  a  corn  of  rice,  smaller  than  a  corn  of  barley,  smaller  than  a  mustard  seed, 
smaller  than  a  canary  seed  or  the  kernel  of  a  canary  seed.  He  also  is  myself 
within  the  heart,  greater  than  the  earth,  greater  than  the  sky,  greater  than 
heaven,  greater  than  all  these  worlds.  He  from  whom  all  works,  all  desires,  all 
sweet  odours  and  tastes  proceed,  who  embraces  all  this,  who  never  speaks  and 
who  is  never  surprised,  he,  myself  within  the  heart,  is  that  Brahman.  When 
I  shall  have  departed  from  thence,  I  shall  obtain  him  [that  Self].  He  who 
has  this  faith  has  no  doubt;  thus  said  Sandilya,  yea,  thus  he  said.2 

But  throughout  the  Upanishads  the  highest  development  of 
atman  deals  with  the  revelation  of  Brahman  as  a  self.  Now  we 
must  ask  what  is  the  nature  of  this  self,  and  it  is  here  that  we  would 
show  two  conflicting  views  of  atman  incipient  in  the  Brahman 
explanations,  and  subtly  compromising  in  their  relations.  And 
it  is  in  this  compromise  and  because  of  it  that  Hindu  thought 
recoils  to  an  attitude  of  subjectivity.  The  later  Upanishads 
record  a  temporary  treaty  of  peace  between  a  personal,  active, 
hopeful  self  and  an  impersonal,  itemized  revelation  of  Brahman. 
The  Brahmanic  philosophy  may  be  summed  up  in  the  phrases, 
“ Brahman  is  Atman”  and  “That  art  Thou.”  The  Brahman  in 
this  equation  represents  the  older  priest  view;  the  atman  the 
attempt  at  a  new  statement  of  reality.  The  contention  as  seen 
centers  chiefly  about  the  meaning  of  knowledge.  Undoubtedly 


1  Chandogya  Up.  VIII.  3.  1.  2. 


2  Chandogya  Up.  III.  14. 


54 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


its  first  meaning  referred  to  the  knowledge  of  the  priests  of  the  sac¬ 
rificial  formulae,  and  the  object  of  desire  was  to  acquire  power  with 
their  fellowmen  through  these  formulae.  With  the  raising  of  the 
problem  of  the  new  conception,  atman,  the  priest  found  it  necessary 
to  define  his  ideas  more  clearly.  The  history  of  atman  indicates 
that  the  soul  or  self  was  the  life-principle,  a  kind  of  physical 
energy,  that  belonged  to  every  member  of  the  early  tribe.  This  was 
given  no  great  stress  anywhere  in  the  early  literature,  for  just  as 
the  individual  was  submerged  in  the  clan  system  and  also  sub¬ 
merged  in  the  family  system  of  land  inheritance  by  all  its  living 
members,  so  the  life-principle  had  been  vital  only  because  it  was 
a  section  of  the  great  cosmic  principle.  Now  the  Upanishads 
indicate  a  real  feeling  for  a  new  type  of  knowledge,  a  self  other 
than  that  which  the  priests  favored. 

“He  in  whom  the  five  beings  [senses]  and  the  ether  rest,  him  alone,  I 
believe  to  be  the  Self.”1 

“By  means  of  thoughts,  touching,  seeing,  passions,  the  incarnate  Self  as¬ 
sumes  successively  in  various  places  various  forms,  in  accordance  with  his 
deeds,  just  as  the  body  grows  when  food  and  drink  are  poured  into  it.”2 

“To  him  who  sees,  perceives,  and  undertakes  this,  the  spirit  springs 
from  the  self,  memory  springs  from  the  Self;  hope  springs  from  the  Self;  so 
do  ether,  fire,  water,  appearance,  and  disappearance,  food,  power,  understand¬ 
ing,  reflection,  consideration,  will,  mind,  speech,  names,  sacred  hymns,  and 
sacrifices — aye,  all  this  springs  from  the  Self.”3 

Not  only  was  this  new  atman  a  reality  in  itself,  it  was  an  expres¬ 
sion  of  normal,  active  living  and  the  desires  and  hopes  that  accom¬ 
pany  such. 

“And  he  who  knows  this  union,  becomes  united  with  offspring,  cattle, 
fame,  glory  of  countenance,  and  the  world  of  S varga.  He  lives  his  full  age.”4 

“He  recites  the  eighty  tristichs  of  Ushnih.  Verily,  the  eighty  Ushnih  tris- 
tichs  are  that  world,  the  heaven.  Whatever  there  is  in  that  world  of  glory, 
greatness,  wives,  food  and  honour,  also  the  divine  being  of  the  Devas  [Brah¬ 
man],  may  I  obtain  it,  may  I  win  it,  may  it  be  mine.”5 

But  the  contradictions  are  so  many  and  the  ritualistic  element 
so  frequently  asserts  itself,  often  half-garbed  in  the  new  con- 

1  Bphad.  Up.  IV.  4.  17.  3  Chand.  Up.  VIII.  26. 1.  ®  Ait.  Ara.  Up.  I.  4.  3.  5. 

2  Svetasvatara  Up.  II.  n.  4  Ait.  Ara.  Up.  III.  1.  1.  10. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 


55 


ception,  that  a  study  of  its  philosophy  is  indeed  tantalizing. 
Sometimes  it  is  easier  to  understand  the  original  atman  by  the  con¬ 
tention  that  the  Brahman  seems  to  be  making  against  it.  This  is 
the  Brahman’s  method  of  defining  and  defending  his  own  con¬ 
ception.  Undoubtedly  the  projector  of  the  atman  idea  meant  some¬ 
thing  very  vital  to  concrete  living;  whereas  breath  was  real,  thought, 
desire,  and  perception  also  were  most  intimate  facts  of  living. 
But  such  suggestions  of  value  in  objects  of  thought,  feeling,  and 
action  were  deprived  of  force  by  their  Brahman  interpretation. 
The  priest  does  not  deny  the  existence  of  the  senses,  but  he  regrets 
the  value  that  the  layman  puts  on  these  aspects  of  being.  And 
it  is  in  this  position  that  his  compromise  lies.  For  the  priest  and 
sage  the  self  is  only  that  which  carries  these  forms  and  appearances 
of  the  real  being  (Brahman). 

Who  is  he  whom  we  meditate  on  as  the  Self  ?  Which  is  the  Self  ?  That 
by  which  we  see,  that  by  which  we  hear,  that  by  which  we  perceive  smells, 
that  by  which  we  utter  speech,  that  by  which  we  distinguish  sweet  and  not 
sweet,  and  what  comes  from  the  heart,  and  the  mind,  namely,  perception, 
command,  understanding,  knowledge,  wisdom,  seeing,  holding,  thinking, 
considering,  readiness  [or  suffering],  remembering,  conceiving,  willing,  breath¬ 
ing,  loving,  desiring  ?  No,  all  these  are  various  names  only  of  Knowledge 
[the  true  Self].1 

Here  the  self  seems  to  be  more  what  might  be  called  a  capacity 
of  knowing;  it  could  scarcely  be  identified  with  the  content  or 
object  of  knowledge  or  desire.  A  later  Upanishad  says: 

“And  the  other  selves  [such  as  speech,  etc.]  follow  the  self,  as  his  people 
follow  the  master  of  the  house,  and  as  the  master  feeds  with  the  people,  nay, 
as  his  people  feed  on  the  master,  thus  does  this  conscious  self  feed  with  the 
other  selves,  as  a  master  with  his  people,  and  the  other  selves  follow  him,  as 
his  people  follow  the  master . And  thus  he  who  knows  this  obtains  pre¬ 

eminence  among  all  beings,  sovereignty,  supremacy,  yes,  he  who  knows  this.”2 

« 

“  ‘  Which  Self,  O  Yagnavalkya,  is  within  all  ?  ’  Yagnavalkya  replied :  ‘  He 

who  overcomes  hunger  and  thirst,  sorrow,  passion,  old  age  and  death.  When 
Brahmans  know  that  self  and  have  risen  above  the  desire  for  sons,  wealth 
and  new  worlds,  they  wander  about  as  mendicants.  Therefore  let  a  Brahman 
after  he  has  done  with  learning  wish  to  stand  by  real  strength;  after  he 
has  done  with  strength  and  learning  he  becomes  a  Muni;  and  after  he  has 
done  with  what  is  not  the  knowledge  of  Muni,  and  with  what  is  the  knowledge 

1  Ait.  Ara.  Up.  II.  6.  i.  2,  3,  4.  2  Kaushitaki  Up.  III.  20. 


56  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


of  Muni,  he  is  a  Brahman.  By  whatever  means  he  becomes  a  Brahman,  he  is 
such  indeed.  Everything  else  is  evil.’  ”* 

“Having  understood  that  the  senses  are  distinct  from  the  Atman  and 
that  their  rising  and  setting  [their  waking  and  sleeping]  belongs  to  them  in 
their  distinct  existence  [and  not  to  the  Atman],  a  wise  man  grieves  no  more.”2 

“He  [the  self]  cannot  be  reached  by  speech,  by  mind,  or  by  the  eye. 
How  can  it  be  apprehended  except  by  him  who  says:  ‘He  is?’  ”3 

“That  Self  is  hidden  in  all  beings  and  does  not  shine  forth,  but  it  is  seen  by 
subtle  seers  through  their  sharp  and  subtle  intellects.”4 

And  in  like  manner  the  object  of  desire  is  defined  and  denied. 

“Though  thou  hadst  seen  the  fulfilment  of  all  desires,  the  foundation  of 
the  world,  the  endless  reward  of  good  deeds,  the  shore  where  there  is  no  fear, 
that  which  is  magnified  by  praise,  the  wide  abode,  the  rest,  yet  being  wise 
thou  hast  with  firm  resolve  dismissed  it  all.”5 

“A  man  who  is  free  from  desires  and  free  from  grief,  sees  the  majesty  of 
the  Self  by  grace  of  the  Creator  [through  the  tranquillity  of  the  senses].”6 

“When  all  the  desires  that  dwell  in  the  heart  cease,  then  mortal  becomes 
immortal  and  obtains  Brahman.”7 

Thus  the  Atman  which  had  yearned  for  a  unique  and  real 
expression  of  itself  through  the  normal  functions  of  life  finds  itself 
submerged  in  the  great  cosmic  principle  Brahman.  Hence  it  loses 
its  identity  and  such  hope  of  recognized  individuality  as  it  may  once 
have  had.  Just  as  the  meaning  and  content  disappeared  from  the 
sacrifice  in  a  former  time,  so  the  knowledge  of  the  formulae  and  the 
knowledge  of  life  disappeared  from  the  atman  conception.  The 
mere  form  of  sacrificial  activity  had  remained,  and  in  like  man¬ 
ner  the  abstract  knowing  self  survived  the  onslaught  of  Brahman 
definition.  But  in  each  case  it  was  the  last  word  of  the  process, 
and  as  an  innovation  the  movement  failed.  Atman  was  everywhere 
knowledge  or  the  thing  known  or  that  which  they  desire  to  know. 
The  Upanishad  was  the  secret  doctrine  of  Brahman  or  the  means 
of  attaining  Brahman,  that  is  to  say,  salvation.  These  terms, 
in  the  end,  became  synonymous — “Brahman  is  Atman.”  The 
object  of  knowledge  and  the  knowledge  process  were  one  and 

1  Brihad.  Up.  III.  5.  1. 

2  Katha  Up.  II.  6.  6.  4  Katha  Up.  I.  3.12.  6  Katha  Up.  I.  2.  20. 

3  Katha  Up.  II.  6.  12.  5  Katha  Up.  I.  2.  11.  7  Katha  Up.  II.  6.  14. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 


57 


the  same  (the  object  and  the  subject  were  one).  Brahman  and 
the  contemplation  of  Brahman  made  the  worshiper  one  with  Brah¬ 
man.  The  knowing  and  the  thing  known  became  one  and  passed 
(as  it  would  seem  to  us)  into  the  unknowable,  and  this  was  the  end 
and  hope  of  the  Sannasyin.  This  was  bliss  and  life(?)  eternal. 

“  Their  deeds  and  their  Self  with  all  his  knowledge  become  all  one  in  the 
highest  Imperishable.  As  the  flowing  rivers  disappear  in  the  sea,  losing  their 
name  and  form,  thus  a  wise  man,  freed  from  name  and  form,  goes  to  the  divine 
Person,  who  is  greater  than  the  great.”1 

“‘By  the  words  “He  is”  is  He  apprehended,  and  by  [admitting]  the 
reality  of  both  [the  invisible  Brahman  and  the  visible  world  as  coming  from 
Brahman].  When  he  has  been  apprehended  by  the  words  “He  is,”  then 
his  reality  reveals  itself.’  ‘When  all  desires  that  dwell  in  his  heart  cease, 
then  the  mortal  becomes  immortal,  and  obtains  Brahman.’  ‘When  all  the 
ties  of  the  heart  are  severed  here  on  earth,  then  the  mortal  becomes  im¬ 
mortal’' — here  ends  the  teaching.”2 

“But  he  replied:  ‘O  Maitereyl,  I  say  nothing  that  is  bewildering.  Verily 
beloved,  that  Self  is  imperishable,  and  of  an  indestructible  nature.  For  when 
there  is  as  it  were  duality,  then  one  sees  the  other,  one  smells  the  other,  one 
tastes  the  other,  one  salutes  the  other,  one  hears  the  other,  one  perceives  the 
other,  one  touches  the  other,  one  knows  the  other;  but  when  the  Self  only  is 
all  this,  how  should  he  see  another,  how  should  he  smell  another,  how  should 
he  taste  another,  how  should  he  salute  another,  how  should  he  hear  another, 
how  should  he  touch  another,  how  should  he  know  another  ?  How  should  he 
know  him  by  whom  he  knows  all  this?  That  Self  is  to  be  described  by  No, 
no!  He  is  incomprehensible,  for  he  cannot  be  comprehended;  he  is  imperish¬ 
able,  for  he  cannot  perish;  he  is  unattached,  for  he  does  not  attach  himself; 
unfettered,  he  does  not  suffer,  he  does  not  fail.  How,  O  beloved,  should  he 
know  the  Knower?  Thus,  O  Maitereyl,  thou  hast  been  instructed.  Thus 
far  goes  immortality.’”3 

So  we  are  assured  by  the  text  itself  that  when  the  individual 
soul  passes  into  bliss  and  unites  with  the  Brahman  it  becomes  itself 
part  of  the  unknowable  and  undefined;  this  seems  to  be  the  very 
source  of  bliss;  this  is  purest  abstraction  for  the  individual.  Hence 
both  Brahman  and  Atman  were  universal  elements  just  as  was 
the  sacrifice,  though  within  the  scope  of  individual  activity.  One 
of  the  Upanishads  even  suggests  the  idea  of  the  senses  being  illu- 

1  Mui;daka.  Up.  III.  2.  7,  8. 

3  Katha  Up.  II.  6.  13,  14,  i5-  3  Brihad.  Up.  IV.  5.  14.  IS- 


58  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


sion  (Maya),  a  position  which  the  Vedanta  later  very  definitely 
assumes.1 

Why  did  the  atman  idea  arise  ?  An  interest  in  the  individual 
as  such  and  an  emphasis  upon  his  activities  come  in  several  ways. 
They  may  follow  a  breaking  up  of  the  clan,  when  independence  of 
action  is  no  longer  censored  by  a  group-consciousness;  also  they 
may  accompany  successful  clan  activity  which  is  focused  in  one 
person,  such  as  king  or  chief  warrior.  Such  conditions  are  emi¬ 
nently  illustrated  even  in  modern  times.  Shanghai  is  called  the 
wickedest  city  in  the  world  because  the  foreigners  are  not  bound 
by  the  conventions  of  their  own  group,  nor  do  they  respect  the 
customs  of  those  among  whom  they  live.  Thus  a  man  without 
a  country  is  not  only  a  misfortune  but  a  menace.  He  breaks  up 
a  situation;  and  he  may  rebuild  or  he  may  destroy.  If  he  does  the 
first,  he  is  a  hero;  if  the  second,  an  outcaste.  In  India  the  man  who 
attempted  to  assert  his  independence  with  respect  to  food,  occu¬ 
pation,  or  marriage  was  literally  an  outcaste.  Only  a  negative 
result  remains  from  these  sporadic  cases ;  this  is  found  in  the  Code 
of  Manu  and  the  tremendous  increase  in  the  number  of  castes. 
But  another  method  of  individualization  is  seen  here;  this  is  politi¬ 
cal  centralization.  This  grew  out  of  the  early  union  of  the  tribes. 
The  struggle  that  brought  this  about  would  emphasize  that  which 
made  possible  the  union ;  to  them  it  would  grant  a  new  conscious¬ 
ness  of  the  will  and  initiative  of  its  leaders.  These  were  the  war¬ 
riors,  and  from  them  came  the  atman  idea.  And,  just  so,  such 
authorities  as  Weber  and  Max  Muller  have  pointed  out  that  proba¬ 
bly  this  atman  idea  did  not  originate  among  the  priests,  but  among 
the  Kshatriyans.  Richard  Garbe  has  given  this  argument  a  popu¬ 
lar  presentation  and  at  the  same  time  points  out  the  very  sophisti¬ 
cal  and  immoral  state  of  the  priesthood  at  this  time.  He  makes  it 
seem  scarcely  possible  that  the  priests  were  capable  of  construct¬ 
ing  so  noble  a  product  as  the  atman  conception.  Furthermore, 
he  cites  the  reference  made  in  the  Upanishads  to  Kshatriyan 
influence.2  It  seems  to  have  been  the  custom  for  men  who  were 
eager  for  knowledge  of  reality  to  assemble  for  instruction,  which 
eventually  became  discussion.  The  kings’  courts  grew  to  be  noted 

1  See  Svetasvatara  Up.  2  Garbe,  The  Philosophy  of  Ancient  India. 


PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 


59 


for  such  assemblage.  Thus  in  the  sixth  book  of  the  Brihadaran- 
yaka  a  young  Brahman,  Q vetaketu  Aruneya,  appeared  at  one  of 
these  meetings.  He  had  been  instructed  in  the  love  of  Brahman 
by  his  father.  At  the  court  he  was  asked  five  questions  by  Prince 
Pravahana  Gaivati;  but  he  could  answer  none  of  them.  He 
returned  and  reported  this  to  his  father.  Thereupon  both  father 
and  son  went  to  the  court  and  became  listeners  to  the  interpreta¬ 
tion  of  the  prince. 

In  word  only  have  former  sages  [though  Brahmanas]  come  as  pupils 
[to  people  of  lower  rank],  but  Gautama  actually  dwelt  as  a  pupil  [of  Prava¬ 
hana  who  was  a  Raganya]  in  order  to  obtain  the  fame  of  having  respectfully 
served  his  master.  The  king  said,  “Do  not  be  offended  with  us,  neither  you 
nor  your  forefathers,  because  this  knowledge  has  before  now  never  dwelt 
with  any  Brahman.”1 

A  similar  story  is  told  in  several  of  the  older  Upanishads,  and 
such  confirmation  has  its  significance.  It  is  the  prince  or  king  who 
appears  most  eager  for  knowledge  in  every  case;  the  attitude  of 
the  Brahman  is  confident,  sometimes  even  boastful.  He  soon 
finds  his  inefficiency.  The  Brahman  Yagnavalkya  disputed  with 
greater  power  than  any  of  the  other  Brahmans.  He  was  on  a  basis 
of  free  intercourse  with  King  Janaka  Vaideha — a  rare  courtesy 
of  Brahman  etiquette.  But  even  he  was  fearful  of  his  power, 
for  the  Upanishad  relates:  “Then  Yagnavalkya  was  fearful  lest 
the  King,  having  become  full  of  understanding,  should  drive  him 
from  all  his  positions.”2  All  this  goes  to  show  that  the  Kshatri- 
yans  had  the  newer  thought  and  may  have  held  it  secretly  for  a 
considerable  period  before  it  was  given  to  the  Brahmans.  Thus 
philosophical  Brahmanism  becomes  a  revolt  against  ritualistic 
Brahmanism  and  represents  a  struggle  for  supremacy  of  thought 
between  Kshatriyans  and  Brahmans.  This  accounts  for  the  incon¬ 
sistencies,  the  vacillation  of  ideas,  and  the  lack  of  system  in  the 
presentation  of  this  early  philosophy.  The  Upanishads  mirror 
the  era  as  it  is;  this  literature  was  the  product  of  the  priests  and 

1  Cf.  also  Muir,  Original  Sanskrit  Texts ,  I,  296-479,  “Early  Contests  between  the 
Brahmans  and  Kshatriyans”;  Deussen,  Allgemeine  Geschichte,  I,  Part  2,  pp.  354  ff. ; 
Winternitz,  Geschichte  der  Ind.  Lit.,  pp.  198-202;  Bloomfield,  The  Religion  of  the  Veda , 
pp.  220-27. 

3  Bphad.  Up.  IV.  3.  33. 


6o 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


unconsciously  reveals  their  attempt  to  suppress  the  innovation. 
But  the  Brahmans  still  held  the  supremacy  in  spite  of  this  political 
union,  and  how  much  of  an  overt  conflict  there  may  have  been  it 
is  impossible  to  determine.  As  a  result  Kshatriyan  individuality 
was  submerged  by  their  independence  of  the  priesthood.  The 
power  of  reconstruction  of  Indian  society  of  this  era  lay  in  the 
warrior,  but  the  priest  refused  to  be  reconstructed.  This  refusal 
was  not  open  warfare,  we  can  believe,  but  a  system  of  conciliation 
and  of  absorption  of  Kshatriyan  thought  which  mangled  it  out  of 
all  possibility  of  future  development. 

These  were  the  conditions  that  changed  Indian  thought  to  an 
essentially  subjective  type.  The  type  of  life  that  the  flexible 
warrior-spirit  proposed  was  impossible  because  it  met  an  arrested 
development  in  prevalent  Brahmanism.  Thus  it  was  turned  back 
upon  itself.  The  warrior  failed  to  find  a  function  and  could  only 
hold  within  himself  the  things  he  proposed  to  express.  For  the 
warrior  the  world  of  sense,  desire,  and  activity  was  what  he  wished 
to  find  real,  but  the  Brahman  refused  to  accept  this. 

If  the  object  of  knowledge  or  desire,  therefore,  is  not  that  pro¬ 
jected  by  the  senses  and  feelings,  what  is  it  ?  The  thing  that  the 
sage  would  know,  the  object  of  his  highest  desire,  is  that  the  effects 
of  individuality  shall  be  suppressed  (perception  and  impulse),  and 
that  this  knowing  subject  may  be  merged  with  Brahman.  The 
universalizing  of  this  object  of  desire  is  accomplished  when  the 
sage  through  meditation  conceives  himself  as  one  with  Brahman. 
Therefore  for  the  sage  or  sannyasin  to  whom  the  fulness  of  life  is 
meditation,  his  function  has  been  maintained  and  his  life  filled 
with  contentment  and  bliss.  The  self  of  sense  is  a  by-product  of 
this  true  self  and  therefore  valueless  by  itself.  The  pursuit  of 
sense  and  impulse  is  of  no  consequence.  The  immortality  and 
gross  neglect  of  social  restrictions  on  the  part  of  sages  are  a  natural 
outcome  of  such  a  theory  in  its  practical  aspect.  The  theoretical 
fulfilment  of  this  doctrine  must  be  that  the  sense-world  is  illusion. 
For  the  warrior  who  desired  to  look  upon  his  world  and  his  serv¬ 
ice  to  it  in  an  objective  sense,  not  only  the  world  which  was  his 
life  was  illusion,  but  his  activity  and  desire  were  all  hopeless.  The 
atman  that  the  princes  offered  to  Hindu  thought  was  stripped  of 


PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 


61 


all  that  meant  life  to  them,  and  nothing  but  the  shell  of  knowledge 
was  left. 

The  Vedanta  philosophy,  which  is  the  later  systematized  form 
of  this  idealism,  uses  this  conception  of  Maya  (illusion)  as  its  funda¬ 
mental  doctrine.  All  reality  is  in  the  subject;  all  else  is  illusion. 
Deussen’s  commentary  states  this  idea  thus: 

It  was  a  simple  consequence  of  these  conceptions  [multiplicity  and  one¬ 
ness]  when  the  Vedanta  declared  the  empirical  concept  which  represents  to  us 
a  manifold  existing  outside  the  self,  a  world  of  the  Object  existing  independ¬ 
ently  of  the  Subject,  to  be  a  glamour  [maya],  an  innate  illusion  resting  on 
an  illegitimate  transference,  in  virtue  of  which  we  transfer  the  reality,  which 
alone  belongs  to  the  subject,  to  the  world  of  the  object,  and  conversely,  the 
characteristics  of  the  objective  world,  e.g.,  corporeality,  to  the  subject,  the 
Self,  the  Soul.1 

He  continues  with  an  analysis  of  £ankara’s  introduction  as  follows : 

Object  and  subject  having  as  their  province  the  presentation  of  the  “Thou” 
and  the  “I,”  are  of  a  nature  as  opposed  as  darkness  and  light.  Hence  it 
follows  that  the  transfer  of  the  object  which  has  as  its  province  the  idea  of 
the  “Thou,”  and  its  qualities,  to  the  pure  spiritual  subject,  which  has  as  its 
province  the  idea  of  the  “I”  conversely,  that  the  transfer  of  the  subject  and 
its  qualities  to  the  object,  is  logically  false.  ....  The  object  of  knowledge, 
the  Soul,  thus  remains,  entirely  unaltered,  no  matter  whether  we  rightly 
understand  it,  or  not.  From  this  we  must  conclude  that  the  ground  of  the 
erroneous  empirical  concept  is  to  be  sought  for  solely  in  the  knowing  subject. 

The  chief  idea  of  this  later  system  is  the  unreality  of  the  report 
of  the  senses.  This  is  one  conclusion  of  the  failure  of  the  Brah¬ 
mans  to  accept  the  content  of  the  Self  (that  the  Kshatriyans  offered) 
as  in  any  way  a  vehicle  to  salvation.  The  knowing  self  alone  is 
real,  and  only  those  that  can  attain  a  right  understanding  of  it 
through  meditation  reach  salvation.  This  meant  usually  only  the 
Brahmans.  The  rest  of  society  was  consigned  to  the  miseries  of 
transmigration.  Thus  we  can  say  that  not  only  were  the  objects 
that  the  self  presented  an  illusion,  but  even  religion  and  salvation 
itself  became  an  illusion  except  for  the  favored  Brahman. 

This  chapter  must  include  an  explanation  of  atman  in  terms  of 
the  sacrifice  as  a  mechanism.  The  watchword  of  ritualistic  Brah¬ 
manism  was  “ doing”;  of  philosophical  Brahmanism,  “knowing.” 

1  Cf.  Deussen,  The  System  of  the  Vedanta ,  pp.  51-54* 


62 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


The  ritualist  said,  “Do  the  service  of  the  sacrifice”;  the  philoso¬ 
pher  said,  “Know  the  Sacred  Word.”  In  spite  of  these  differences 
the  dialectic  of  the  processes  is  the  same.  The  method  of  the 
Upanishads  was  contemplation;  through  meditation  the  philoso¬ 
pher  came  to  the  realization  that  Brahman  was  Atman.  This 
was  the  means  of  salvation,  just  as  partaking  of  the  god  on  the 
altar  was  regeneration  of  the  worshiper.  Here  also  Atman  par¬ 
took  of  Brahman;  the  philosopher  made  himself  one  with  the  god, 
he  brought  the  god  within  him,  and  this  realization  was  the  means 
of  deliverance  from  all  evil  and  desire.  However,  this  difference 
between  Rig-Veda  sacrifice  and  Brahmanical  contemplation  must 
be  emphasized:  the  sacrifice  was  a  means  of  fulfilling  desire,  it 
refilled  the  sacrifice,  it  gave  hope  and  courage;  contemplation  de¬ 
livered  from  desire  and  fulfilled  only  the  great  desire  of  oneness 
with  the  Brahman — all  of  which  is  the  outcome  of  the  staticity 
and  completeness  of  the  Brahman  conception.  It  reflects  quite 
completely  the  impersonal  and  static  nature  of  the  caste  system 
whose  product  this  type  of  thought  most  surely  is. 

Hindu  thought  is  consistently  pantheistic  after  the  Rig-Veda 
period;  pantheism  has  no  place  in  it  for  a  reconstruction.  Every¬ 
thing  is  now  and  forever  the  same.  Contemplation  does  not 
destroy  its  images;  it  exaggerates  and  expands  its  picture  and 
weaves  a  mystic  mood  about  its  thought.  Contemplation  pro¬ 
jects  its  picture  out  and  away  from  it.  It  is  reflection  that  is  the 
iconoclast  of  our  mental  images.  It  gathers  the  concepts  up  within 
itself,  tears  them  apart,  and  out  of  the  ruins  and  ever-incoming 
experiences  re-creates  its  ideas.  But  reflection  is  not  the  method 
of  the  Upanishads.  Union  of  Atman  and  Brahman  is  attained, 
but  it  is  at  the  expense  of  Atman  which  failed  to  realize  itself 
within  the  Brahman. 

The  innovation  failed;  it  resulted  in  a  new  form  of  subjectivity. 
In  Atman  the  Hindus  had  a  new  ideal.  A  hypothesis  is  subjective 
and  ideal  until  it  is  realized  in  experience,  when  it  becomes  objective 
and  real.  No  idea  is  essentially  the  one  or  the  other;  it  becomes 
whatever  it  is  according  to  its  functions.  Atman  was  a  new  hypothe¬ 
sis  of  the  world,  but  failed  to  find  expression  and  fulfilment  in 
Brahman.  Though  Atman  and  Brahman  are  made  identical,  it 


PHILOSOPHICAL  BRAHMANISM 


63 


is  a  mechanical  relation,  and  atman  never  becomes  a  real  working 
part  of  Brahman.  The  original  atman  idea  therefore  remained 
a  thing  of  the  imagination,  not  of  experience.  The  world  which 
this  atman  of  the  imagination  represented  became  an  illusion;  the 
only  thing  that  remained  real  was  an  atman  (self)  that  was  real¬ 
ized  through  an  empty  meditation,  whose  method  we  may  believe 
was  largely  hypnotic.  This  had  no  part  in  an  active  experience. 
In  one  form  or  another  this  struggle  of  a  new  hypothesis  against 
a  fixed  habit  plays  the  greatest  role  among  the  causes  of  subjec¬ 
tivity  in  Hindu  thought. 


CHAPTER  V 
LATER  INNOVATIONS 

A.  BUDDHISM  AND  OTHER  RELIGIOUS  REVOLTS 

In  1896  inscriptions  were  discovered  in  Northern  India  to  the 
effect  that  King  Agoka  came  to  worship  where  Buddha  had  been 
born.  This  place  was  Kapilavastu.  The  inscriptions  were  impor¬ 
tant  for  several  reasons:  they  established  the  fact  that  Buddha 
was  a  real  person  and  was  descended  from  a  royal  family;  they 
also  indicated  that  this  movement  arose  in  that  part  of  the  country 
where  Aryan  settlement  was  newest.  Siddartha  Gautama,  alias 
Buddha,  was  born  about  560  b.c.  ;  the  legend  related  that  his  father’s 
desire  was  to  keep  from  him  all  knowledge  of  sin  and  suffering, 
but  that  he  was  unsuccessful,  and  that  Gautama  in  his  twenty- 
ninth  year  left  his  royal  home,  his  wife,  and  infant  son  to  search 
for  the  solution  of  the  problem  of  existence  and  thus  to  carry  the 
way  of  salvation  to  others.  After  listening  to  Brahman  sages, 
from  whom  he  gained  no  comfort,  he  attempted  to  work  out  the 
solution  himself,  and  the  result  of  his  inspiration  under  the  bo 
tree  was  the  foundation  of  the  second  innovation  against  ritual¬ 
istic  Brahmanism. 

The  Tipitaka,  the  literature  of  early  Buddhism,  was  written 
in  the  Pali  language,  which  was  probably  a  dialect  of  Northern 
India.  This  dialect  was  taken  to  Ceylon  during  the  reign  of  Agoka, 
where  it  suffered  an  arrested  development.  In  Northern  India 
the  dialect  became  modified  along  with  the  change  in  Buddhism. 
This  means  that  in  Northern  India  the  Buddhist  texts  are  found 
only  in  a  mixed  dialect  and  the  Sanskrit.  Hence  it  is  to  Ceylon 
that  we  must  look  for  the  purest  form  of  the  teachings  of 
Buddha.  These  writings  consisted  of  dialogue,  sermons,  and  philo¬ 
sophical  treatises  on  the  sermons;  but  the  essence  of  the  doctrine 
is  found  in  the  sermons.  From  the  sermon  of  Benares  it  is  ne¬ 
cessary  to  conclude  that  Gautama  himself  absolutely  discarded 
philosophy,  asceticism,  and  ritual;  his  was  a  system  of  social  ethics. 

64 


LATER  INNOVATIONS 


65 


No  reference  is  made  to  either  a  god  or  a  soul  in  these  early  ser¬ 
mons — the  way  of  salvation  was  the  whole  idea.  The  later  writ¬ 
ings  were  a  conservative  theological  and  philosophical  treatment 
of  the  original  Buddhism.  Some  of  the  Brahmans  had  accepted 
the  teaching  of  Gautama,  but,  instead  of  being  converted  to  the 
faith,  they  translated  the  faith  according  to  their  own  needs  and 
tendencies,  and  the  result  of  this  went  into  the  manuscripts  as  a 
variety  of  doctrines  and  contradictions.  One  of  the  most  note¬ 
worthy  facts  of  Buddhism  is  its  disappearance  in  India  proper  and 
its  power  and  permanence  in  other  countries,  such  as  Burmah,  Cey¬ 
lon,  and  China. 

There  are  three  fundamental  doctrines  in  Buddhism — Aniccam, 
Dukkan,  and  Anattam.  These  are,  respectively,  the  imperma¬ 
nence  of  every  individual,  the  sorrow  inherent  in  individuality,  and 
the  unreality  of  any  abiding  principle.  Gautama’s  sermon  on  the 
foundation  of  righteousness  shows  how  he  attempted  to  solve  this: 

There  are  two  extremes,  O  Recluses,  which  he  who  has  gone  forth  ought 
not  to  follow:  the  habitual  practice  on  the  one  hand,  of  those  things  whose 
attraction  depends  upon  the  pleasures  of  sense,  and  especially  of  sensuality 
(a  practice  low  and  pagan,  fit  only  for  the  worldly-minded,  unworthy,  of  no 
abiding  profit) ;  and  the  habitual  practice,  on  the  other  hand,  of  self-mortifi¬ 
cation  (a  practice  painful,  unworthy,  and  equally  of  no  abiding  profit). 

There  is  a  Middle  Way,  O  Recluses,  avoiding  these  two  extremes, 
discovered  by  the  Tathagata — a  path  which  opens  the  eyes  and  bestows  under¬ 
standing,  which  leads  to  peace  of  mind,  to  higher  wisdom,  to  full  enlighten¬ 
ment,  to  Nirvana. 

And  what  is  the  Middle  Path  ?  Verily  it  is  the  Noble  Rightfold  Path. 
That  is  to  say: 

Right  Views  (free  from  superstition  and  delusion). 

Right  Aspirations  (high,  and  worthy  of  the  intelligent  worthy  man). 

Right  Speech  (kindly,  open  and  truthful). 

Right  Conduct  (peaceful,  honest,  pure). 

Right  Livelihood  (bringing  hurt  or  danger  to  no  living  thing). 

Right  Effort  (in  self-training  and  self-control). 

Right  Mindfulness  (the  active  and  watchful  mind). 

Right  Rapture  (in  deep  meditation  on  the  realities  of  life)  I 

1  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism ,  p.  135. 

This  is  typically  a  social  code  of  right  living.  It  is  in  strange 
contrast  with  his  theory  of  the  sorrow  and  error  of  individuality, 


66 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


just  as  the  impermanence  of  the  individual  contradicts  the  idea 
underlying  transmigration.  All  this  emphasizes  the  difficulty  of 
the  problem  with  which  Gautama  was  wrestling  and  the  futility 
of  any  attempt  at  solution.  Gautama  preached  against  castes, 
against  the  ineffectiveness  of  deeds  or  of  the  ritual  service.  Salva¬ 
tion  must  come  through  the  individual;  every  man  must  save  him¬ 
self,  for  faith  in  the  Buddha  could  not  accomplish  it,  although 
Buddha  could  show  him  the  way.  This  salvation  was  open  to 
none  who  did  not  renounce  the  world  and  take  upon  him  a  life  of 
self-denial.  Gautama  disclaims  all  definition  of  life  or  self;  he 
takes  a  middle  way  which  brings  peace  and  happiness.  The  end 
of  all  is  Nirvana.  This  is  described  as  Ambrosia,  a  going  out, 
peace,  happiness,  the  end  of  craving,  the  state  of  purity,  the  un¬ 
create,  the  tranquil,  the  unchanging,  the  imperishable:  “All  on 
fire  is  this  endless  becoming,  burning  and  blazing!  Full  of  pain  is 
it,  of  despair !  If  only  one  could  reach  a  state  in  which  there  were 
no  becoming,  there  would  be  calm,  that  would  be  sweet — the  ces¬ 
sation  of  all  these  conditions,  the  getting  rid  of  all  these  defects 
(of  lusts,  of  evil  and  karma),  the  end  of  cravings,  the  absence  of 
passion,  peace,  Nirvana  !”x 

The  ten  fetters — ignorance,  conformations,  consciousness,  name 
and  form,  the  six  senses,  contact,  sensation,  grasping,  becoming, 
and  old  age  and  death — were  to  be  overcome  before  Nirvana  could 
be  reached.  This  conquest  might  be  accomplished  during  the 
lifetime  as  well  as  at  death — a  Buddhist  ideal  which  is  known  as 
Arahatship.  Those  who  could  not  accomplish  this  state  before 
death  went  through  a  series  of  rebirths.  According  to  your  deeds 
in  this  life  were  you  reborn  either  as  animal  or  man.  The  incon¬ 
sistency  of  such  a  theory  they  could  not  realize,  and  in  this  lies 
the  pessimism  of  Buddhism.  For  the  later  Buddhist  this  may  not 
constitute  pessimism,  but  for  the  whole  trend  of  thought  such  an 
interpretation  is  inevitable.  The  works  of  life  have  their  effect; 
the  individual  must  determine  his  own  salvation.  It  is  a  dynamic 
power  that  lies  in  each  person;  this  positive  idea  can  find  no  place  in 
the  Buddhist  social  system,  in  spite  of  the  evident  yearning  for 
such  a  conception.  Indian  social  life  could  not  foster  such  an 

x  See  Rhys  Davids,  Buddhism. 


LATER  INNOVATIONS 


67 


idea;  therefore  the  Buddhist  argument  runs:  Every  attempt  at 
individual  expression  brings  sorrow  and  pain  in  the  end.  There¬ 
fore  renounce  the  things  of  life ;  they  are  its  fetters ;  yield  yourself 
to  a  method  of  suppression;  destroy  desire,  destroy  all  feeling  and 
ambition.  The  life  of  self-control  and  self-denial  alone  brings 
peace  and  relief  from  evil.  Therefore  also  destroy  all  the  springs 
of  activity;  reduce  the  self  to  its  lowest  denominator — this  is  sal¬ 
vation. 

The  self  in  which  Buddha  believed  and  which  he  wished  to 
express  was  the  active  life  of  sense  and  feeling,  but  he,  too,  found 
no  place  for  it.  He  believed  that  this  life  was  real,  that  his  sense- 
world  was  true.  Yet  there  was  no  way  of  socializing  his  concep¬ 
tion.  He  wandered  for  years  as  a  student  and  teacher,  hoping  to 
find  a  solution.  Finally,  during  his  meditation  under  the  bo  tree 
he  conceived  a  plan  of  curbing,  controlling,  and  suppressing  the 
senses  and  impulses  until  they  disappeared  in  that  unconsciousness 
that  means  peace  and  Nirvana.  His  object  of  desire  was  no  illu¬ 
sion,  but  on  the  other  hand  there  was  no  place  for  it  in  Indian 
social  life.  Hence  he  must  keep  it  within  himself,  where  evidently 
it  was  to  be  lost  in  unconsciousness.  This  means  annihilation  of 
sense  and  impulse,  which  to  him  were  the  self.  Buddha  does  not 
openly  accept  this. 

The  materialists,  a  small,  secret  philosophical  school,  frankly 
destroyed  the  soul  with  the  body.  They  consequently  destroyed 
also  salvation  and  the  idea  of  transmigration.  This  was  the  last 
step  in  the  negative  movement  of  Indian  thought. 

This  is  one  kind  of  solution  for  the  discomforts  and  pain  of  exist¬ 
ence — the  only  one  that  can  be  projected  into  a  static  universality, 
such  as  pantheism.  The  world  progresses  through  a  conflict  of 
individual  impulses  and  activities;  it  also  dies  by  the  same  means. 
When  a  higher  synthesis  rises  out  of  the  conflict,  when  the  problem 
is  solved  through  mutual  reconstruction  of  conflicting  forces,  then 
society  experiences  progress.  But  when  one  side  remains  immov¬ 
able,  then  the  other  can  only  turn  its  activity  back  upon  itself. 
Such  a  result  can  be  only  a  makeshift  of  solution,  for  no  real 
progress  thus  arises.  So  with  Buddhism;  striking  against  immov¬ 
able  Brahmanism,  the  self  of  Buddhism  turned  back  within  itself 


68 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


and  sought  to  find  its  satisfaction  in  the  destruction  of  its 
dynamic  elements.  Many  contend  that  the  doctrine  of  Buddha 
does  not  preach  annihilation  of  the  soul;  the  texts  themselves 
indicate  that  Gautama  left  this  point  undiscussed;  but  the  word 
Nirvana  in  its  origin  meant  “a  going  out,”  and  the  natural  result 
of  this  doctrine  would  be  annihilation.  If  the  soul  is  not  annihi¬ 
lated,  it  is  at  least  put  in  a  state  where  it  can  do  no  harm;  it  is 
ineffective  and  negative;  it  does  not  assert,  but  inhibits,  its  im¬ 
pulses;  it  does  not  grow,  it  shrivels.  The  doctrine  preaches  good 
deeds  only  by  the  way;  its  goal  is  cessation  of  activities.  Nirvana 
then  is  the  zero  of  self-expression.  This  is  the  logical  conclusion 
of  the  long  struggle  between  pantheism  and  the  efforts  for  recon¬ 
struction.  This  struggle  was  at  every  point  guarded  and  aided 
by  the  Brahman  caste  feeling.  In  Buddhism,  therefore,  the  atman 
may  still  be  equivalent  to  brahman,  but  both  have  lost  their  value. 
The  God  or  Brahman  became  zero  and  fails  to  appear  in  Buddhist 
teaching.  On  the  other  hand,  the  segregated  atman,  though  not 
technically  destroyed,  becomes  zero  through  the  plan  of  renuncia¬ 
tion  and  self-denial.  Even  in  the  Brahmanized  form  in  later 
Buddhism,  when  the  gods  are  mentioned  they  have  lost  their 
power.  Just  as  the  god-conception  developed  with  the  inspira¬ 
tion  and  expansion  of  the  individual  (Rig- Veda  sacrifice)  and  were 
in  that  sense  identical,  so  here  the  limitation  of  individual  growth, 
the  suppression  of  personal  inspiration,  means  the  eventual  destruc¬ 
tion  of  the  individual  soul  and  also  the  god. 

The  doctrine  of  transmigration  first  appeared  in  Brahmanism, 
but  received  greater  emphasis  in  Buddhism.  It  is  a  type  of  doc¬ 
trine  that  could  live  with  a  pantheistic  theory.  Each  is  founded 
upon  a  pervading,  underlying  principle  that  is  permanent.  In  the 
pantheistic  system  this  principle  is  the  basis  for  all  the  differen¬ 
tiated  forms  of  the  universe,  and  in  the  human  soul  has  its  perma¬ 
nent  soul  amid  all  the  frailties  of  human  activities.  Whether  the 
transmigration  idea  was  taken  over  from  the  Dravidians,  or  was 
already  existent  in  popular  phases  of  religion,  or  arose  directly  out 
of  this  era,  is  of  small  importance.  Pantheism  would  foster  it 
in  any  case.  Any  closely  knit  system  such  as  totemism  or  panthe¬ 
ism  is  congenial  to  this  idea.  But  while  Brahmanism  attempted 


LATER  INNOVATIONS  69 

to  give  the  goal  of  transmigration  a  positive  statement,  Buddhism 
succeeded  only  in  reaching  a  negative  position. 

The  fall  of  Buddhism  was  inevitable.  In  the  first  place,  it 
struck  at  the  social  system,  for  any  caste-man  could  be  a  Bud¬ 
dhist.  For  a  time  this  threatened  the  power  of  the  castes,  but  the 
social  system  was  too  dead  to  be  resurrected.  In  the  second  place, 
focusing  of  thought  upon  the  self  brings  greater  consciousness  of 
its  impulses  and  habits,  and  the  end  is  quite  as  likely  to  be  a  rein¬ 
forcement  of  these  as  an  inhibition  of  them.  Such  has  been  the 
history  of  monastic  orders.  Hence  Buddhism  was  destined  either 
to  be  reconceived  or  to  die.  Thus  Buddhism  passed  from  India, 
though  it  lived  in  other  countries  where  it  had  been  adopted. 

Another  heretical  religion  appearing  at  this  time  was  Jainism. 
In  many  of  its  tenets  it  was  akin  to  Buddhism,  but  it  did  not  deny 
the  reality  of  the  soul  or  of  matter ;  it  practiced  asceticism  and  wor¬ 
shiped  animals.  Its  power  was  very  much  less  than  that  of  Bud¬ 
dhism,  and  it  has  continued  as  a  small  sect  in  India  even  to  the 
present  day.  This  religion  was  instituted  likewise  by  a  member 
of  the  royal  caste,  one  Mahavlra,  who  was  a  contemporary  of  Gau¬ 
tama.  Jainism  and  Buddhism  were  only  two  of  many  heretical 
sects  that  sprang  up  about  this  time.  These  heretical  tendencies 
came  from  the  eastern  and  northern  parts  of  India,  where  life  was 
newer  and  less  conservative.  If  philosophical  Brahmanism,  Bud¬ 
dhism,  and  Jainism  can  be  accepted  as  any  indication,  it  is  pos¬ 
sible  to  say  that  reconstructive  and  heretical  tendencies  came  from 
the  Kshatriyan  class.  This  era  was  ripe  for  revolt  against  the 
deadening  doctrine  of  the  Brahmans.  But  none  of  the  heresies 
employed  a  method  of  attack  that  could  compete  with  the  prestige 
and  inertia  of  Brahman  ideals  and  activities.  Brahman  life  needed 
to  be  sensitized,  and  this  had  never  been  accomplished.  Just  as  in 
the  first  innovation,  these  impulses  toward  individuality  and  inde¬ 
pendence  expressed  in  Buddhism  and  Jainism  were  associated  with 
a  movement  toward  political  centralization.  This  culminated  in 
the  early  Gupta  dynasties,  leaders  of  which  were  Chandragupta 
(316  b.c.)  and  his  grandson  Agoka.  The  latter  was  styled  the  Con¬ 
stantine  of  Buddhism  because  he  made  it  the  state  religion.  This 
was  also  a  period  of  comparative  prosperity  in  Indian  history. 


7o 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


The  contradictions  and  changes  of  Buddhism  show  that  the 
original  idea  was  smoothed  over  and  polished  into  a  comfortable 
doctrine  by  Brahman  converts,  who  could  not  wrestle  free  from 
the  spirit  of  their  caste.  Its  negative  aspects  were  softened  and 
its  pessimism  relieved  to  the  extent  that  its  followers  took  up  the 
faith  unconscious  of  the  bitter  struggle  that  had  brought  it  about 
and  of  the  irony  of  their  attitude  toward  its  tenets.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  secret  doctrine  of  the  materialists  gained  no  power  or 
place  in  the  system.  The  failure  of  this  second  great  period  of 
revolt  further  argues  that  Brahmanism  was  an  arrested  develop¬ 
ment. 


CHAPTER  VI 
ORTHODOX  DEVELOPMENTS 


Coincident  with  the  heretical  movements  an  orthodox  develop¬ 
ment  was  taking  place.  This  tendency  is  recorded  chiefly  in  the 
Mahdbhdrata ,  which  was  probably  under  construction  before  Bud¬ 
dhism,  and  the  Bhagamdgltd.  The  Mahdbhdrata  was  well  known 
to  Panini  in  the  fourth  century  b.c.,  though  it  was  not  completed 
until  the  period  of  the  renaissance,  about  600  a.d.  This  poem  is 
the  scriptures  for  all  sects  of  early  Hinduism.  The  great  god  is 
Brahman,  the  All-God,  but  its  pantheon  (for  it  has  a  pantheon) 
has  changed  much  from  that  of  the  Rig-Veda.  No  god  has  any 
great  power,  but  the  change  that  occurs  in  the  list  of  gods  indicates 
that  Brahmanism  is  undergoing  an  unconscious  change.  Two  of 
the  new  gods  are  Dharma  (duty)  and  Kama  (desire) ;  Indra  has 
lost  much  of  his  pomp,  though  still  the  warrior’s  defender;  Varuna 
too  has  faded,  and  Soma  is  almost  forgotten.  Have  the  Aryans 
lost  their  inspiration  ?  The  sectarian  religions  affect  strongly  the 
old  objects  of  worship;  the  sacrifice  has  lost  much  of  its  god- 
compelling  aspect.  Dharma  and  Kama  undoubtedly  express  facts 
that  were  much  closer  than  the  ideas  associated  with  the  old  gods. 

But  many  other  factors  enter  into  this  early  Hinduism:  asceti¬ 
cism  was  greatly  emphasized;  the  yogi  became  a  juggler  and  charla¬ 
tan;  his  acts  were  looked  upon  with  awe.  Alongside  this  asceticism 
the  grossest  immorality  flourished.  “  There  were  doubtless  good 
and  bad  priests,  but  the  peculiarity  of  the  epic  priest,  rapacious 
and  lustful,  is  that  he  glories  in  his  sins.”1  The  sects  favored 
“ heavens,”  and  each  god  had  his  own;  this  idea  existed  at  the 
same  time  with  transmigration  and  the  pantheistic  doctrine.  The 
epic  covered  many  ancient  rites  and  superstitions,  fetishism  in¬ 
cluded.  Idolatry  and  tree  worship  were  initiated.  Great  devo¬ 
tion  to  the  law  existed  at  the  same  time  with  the  most  out-and-out 
disregard  of  it.  This  new  religion  that  was  superseding  and 
absorbing  Brahmanism  was  multiform;  it  was  one  great  jungle; 

1  Hopkins,  Religions  of  India,  p.  353. 


7i 


72 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


it  absorbed  everything.  This  Vaisnavism  was  a  religious  reform, 
like  Buddhism  and  Jainism.  It  covered  many  centuries  and 
appeared  under  many  forms.  Bhandarkar  says: 

Its  early  name  was  Ekantika  Dharma,  or  the  religion  of  a  single-minded 
love,  and  devotion  to  One.  In  its  background  stood  the  Bhagamdgltd,  a 
discourse  professing  to  be  preached  by  Vasudeva-Krishna.  It  soon  assumed 
a  sectarian  form  and  was  called  the  Pancaratra  or  Bhagavata  religion.  It 
was  professed  by  a  tribe  of  Kshatriyans  of  the  name  of  Savata  and  was  noticed 
by  Megasthenes  about  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  before  Christ  as  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  such  a  specific  people.1 

Another  form  under  which  this  worship  appeared  was  the 
Narayana  faith;  it  here  identified  Vasudeva  and  Narayana.  The 
Bhagamdgltd  contributes  the  conception  of  bhakti,  a  fervent,  pas¬ 
sionate  attachment — a  conception  which  puts  an  entirely  new 
personal  element  into  Hindu  religious  expression.  This  conception 
may  have  been  a  Christian  contribution,  but  it  is  impossible  to 
determine  this.2  After  the  Christian  era  Vaisnavism  became 
related  to  the  Krishna  worship,  a  religious  system  of  the  cowherds, 
the  Abhiras,  a  foreign  tribe.  It  continued  until  the  eighth  cen¬ 
tury  a.d.,  when,  after  a  struggle  with  the  monism  and  world- 
illusion  theory  of  Samkaracarya,  Ramanuja  revived  the  bhakti 
religion.  Another  line  of  religious  development  appeared  in  the 
Rudra-f  iva  worship.  During  the  renaissance  period  the  popular 
worship  was  expressed  in  the  trinity,  Vishnu,  Qiva,  and  Brahman. 
These  gods  are  no  longer  nature-gods  but  quite  anthropomorphic. 
This  early  Hinduism  was  so  assimilative  that  it  accepted  every¬ 
thing  that  the  people  favored.  It  brought  no  opposition;  it  sim¬ 
ply  accepted  all  ideas  without  distinctions.  Brahmanism,  while 
quite  like  this,  always  remolds  these  ideas  to  suit  its  pantheism. 

It  was  because  this  Ekantika  religion  was  so  conservative  that  it  gradu¬ 
ally  made  its  way  into  Hindu  society  in  general,  though  it  did  not  succeed  in 
uprooting  the  religion  of  sacrifice.  Still  it  always  retained  its  character  as 
a  religion  for  women  and  for  all  castes,  Sudras  included,  and  in  its  later  devel¬ 
opment  it  was  associated  with  such  Vedic  rites  as  then  remained  when  it  was 
professed  by  the  Brahmans,  but  not  so  associated  when  its  followers  were  of 
lower  castes,  among  whom  it  continued  to  exercise  great  influence.3 

1  Bhandarkar,  Vaisnavism,  Qaivism ,  and  Minor  Religious  Systems,  p.  87. 

2  Macnicol,  Indian  Theism,  p.  272. 

3  Bhandarkar,  Vaisnavism,  Qaivism,  and  Minor  Religious  Systems,  p.  30. 


ORTHODOX  DEVELOPMENTS 


73 


It  is  supposed  that  the  Mahdbhdrata  was  originally  the  work 
of  a  low-caste  man,  and  Garbe  contends  that  the  bhakti  idea  also 
was  introduced  by  a  Kshatriyan,  Krishna.  But  as  usual  the  mate¬ 
rials  were  remodeled  by  the  Brahmans.  These  injections  into  the 
orthodox  system  indicate  how  intense  was  the  need  for  some  kind 
of  expression  of  concrete  life.  The  development  of  such  ideas  as 
bhakti  and  the  personality  found  in  the  trinity  shows  that  they 
were  capable  of  conceptions  that,  if  permitted  free  rein,  might 
have  developed  into  as  fine  ideas  as  those  of  Western  religions. 
But  these  ideas  were  continually  bound  by  the  old  caste  restric¬ 
tions  and  formulations.  These  ideas  were  constructive,  but  their 
life  was  warped.  In  the  heretical  religions  the  conceptions  were 
largely  destructive  and  grew  rapidly. 

These  orthodox  temodelings  expressed  a  very  meager,  often 
primitive,  unsatisfactory,  yet  objective  outlet  of  self-consciousness. 
It  was  an  effort  to  get  everyday  thought  and  feeling  into  their 
ideal  values — an  effort  to  give  to  concrete  living  reality  and  power. 
Self-consciousness  in  Indian  thought  since  Brahmanism  was  almost 
completely  subjective,  but  the  popular  elements  insisted  upon 
some  place  in  the  system.  The  Kshatriyan  attempted  to  function 
in  contradiction  to  the  priests  and  failed.  These  positive  results 
of  Hinduism  were  accomplished  because  these  innovators  succeeded 
in  getting  their  ideas  unostentatiously  before  the  Brahman.  This 
movement  was  gradual  and  probably  unconscious. 

During  the  renaissance  (about  400-1000  a.d.)  this  objective 
expression  of  self-consciousness  was  carried  farther  in  the  process 
by  the  building  up  of  physical  objects  through  the  Indian  efforts  at 
science  and  expression  of  social  phenomena  through  the  literature. 
Again  it  was  the  Brahman  that  was  principally  the  medium  of 
expression.  Now  the  Kshatriyan  had  learned  to  further  his  own 
interests  by  means  of  the  Brahman;  royalty  remained  in  the  back¬ 
ground  as  patron  and  supporter.  This  rejuvenation  occurred  just 
after  the  political  centralization  of  the  Gupta  dynasty  of  the  early 
fourth  century  a.d. 

How  much  foreign  invasion  directed  this  rebirth  it  is  impossible 
to  say.  But  the  princes  seemed  at  last  to  have  learned  their  lesson; 
in  order  to  realize  their  ideals  and  desires  they  must  needs  work 


74 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


through  the  priest  rather  than  against  him.  Hence,  here  are  the 
beginnings  of  optimistic,  objective  self-expression  found  in  a  prom¬ 
ising  science  and  in  understanding  of  personality,  meager  as  it  is, 
as  illustrated  in  the  trinity. 

What  might  have  been  the  conclusion  of  this  positive  move¬ 
ment  under  favoring  political  conditions  it  is  impossible  to  say. 
But  already  the  Scythians  were  pouring  in  from  the  northwest, 
and  about  1000  a.d.  the  Mohammedans  invaded  the  country. 
From  that  time  forward  India  was  the  scene  of  both  foreign  and 
native  struggle.  Hinduism  is  very  much  what  it  was  during  the 
renaissance,  and  Brahmanism  still  holds  a  powerful  place.  Its 
stamp  of  subjectivity  and  pessimism  remain  even  today  the  essen¬ 
tial  fact  of  all  Indian  thought. 


CHAPTER  VII 
SUMMARY 


Let  us  retrace  the  line  of  development  of  subjectivity.  The 
first  period  is  thoroughly  objective — a  difference  which  fixes  more 
sharply  the  problem  of  the  causes  of  the  rise  of  subjectivity.  The 
Aryans  were  in  migration  and  at  war  with  the  native  Dravidians. 
They  had  lived  in  close  clan  organization,  but  added  freedom  and 
initiative  came  with  this  looser  type  of  life.  An  appreciation  of 
the  objective  world  is  illustrated  by  their  nature-gods  and  the  first 
tendency  toward  personality  in  these  gods.  However,  the  group 
spirit  was  stronger  than  any  individual  force.  The  warrior  was 
supreme;  Indra,  the  war-god,  was  leader  of  the  pantheon.  Religion 
was  a  part  of  the  warrior’s  daily  routine,  and  certain  men  served 
especially  in  this  capacity  of  priest  and  became  quite  expert. 
Every  phase  of  society  had  its  particular  function  exercised  freely. 

The  priest  grew  in  power  through  the  specialization  of  his 
function.  Nomadic  life  was  as  responsible  for  this  as  for  the 
emphasis  on  the  function  of  the  warrior.  After  the  Aryans  began 
to  colonize  the  eastern  part  of  India  along  the  Ganges,  the  tribes 
united  and  settled  down  to  a  life  of  comfort.  Here  the  warrior 
lost  much  of  function,  while  the  office  of  the  priest  was  quite  as 
valuable  as  before.  He  became  supreme  in  this  period  and 
unconsciously  assisted  in  the  formation  of  the  caste  system.  He 
emphasized  his  own  occupation  and  he  emphasized  himself  as 
“twice-born,”  which  set  him  off  in  the  first  place  from  every  other 
function  of  the  group,  and  in  the  second  place  from  the  conquered 
“  once-born  ”  Dra vidian  or  serf.  The  inertia  induced  by  this  warm, 
fruitful  climate  assisted  in  this  swamping  of  individual  interest 
and  power.  The  priest  expressed  his  particular  function  through 
the  sacrifice  which  was  the  vehicle  for  some  telling  transformations 
in  this  period.  The  company  of  gods  gradually  changed  to  an 
All-God  and  a  pantheistic  view  of  the  universe;  the  brahman  devel¬ 
oped  from  an  objective  lifting  up  of  the  accessories  of  the  sacrifice 
to  the  great  god  which  was  offered  in  the  same  way.  The  first  and 


75 


76  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 

second  tendencies  merged  in  the  final  idea  of  Brahman.  At  the 
same  time  the  vehicle  was  being  improved  and  elaborated  so  that 
it  too  became  an  object  of  worship;  then  the  sacrifice  lost  its  real 
function  in  society.  The  sacrificer  was  raised  to  self-consciousness 
when  he  could  set  himself  over  against  the  god  of  the  sacrifice. 
When  he  partook  of  the  god  he  gained  a  new  self — he  gained  more 
of  the  vital  element.  No  such  new  object  of  knowledge  or  desire 
can  be  obtained  without  its  attempting  to  express  itself.  In  the 
case  of  the  sacrifice  this  became  the  reconceived  god.  For  the 
Rig-Veda  period  this  god  pleased  the  senses  and  the  feeling;  he 
appeared  in  Nature,  which  was  real  and  live;  he  gave  the  joy  of 
dawn,  the  contentment  of  the  evening,  and  the  peace  or  fear  of 
the  night.  These  gods  were  known  to  all  the  senses  of  man. 

But  in  the  new  land  there  appeared  a  “  Pharaoh  who  knew  not 
Joseph.”  In  the  permanent  settlement  of  Western  India  the  war¬ 
rior  lost  his  function;  he  was  the  nominal  ruler  still.  But  the 
priest  did  not  need  protection  now,  the  land  and  homes  did  not 
need  to  be  fought  for,  and  the  service  of  the  warrior  became 
an  abstraction  to  him.  Consequently  when  the  princes  pro¬ 
posed  the  atman  idea,  which  to  them  was  filled  with  the  joy  of 
sense  and  the  satisfaction  of  activity,  which  to  them  was  real  and 
vital,  the  Brahmans  took  it  over  and  made  an  abstraction  of  it. 
The  knowing  subject  was  no  longer  a  thing  that  saw,  heard,  warred, 
and  ruled,  but  merely  a  vehicle  of  erudition,  which  vehicle  could 
really  not  be  known.  Just  so  the  later  sacrifice  became  merely  a 
mechanism  for  carrying  out  elaborate  and  fixed  formulae.  Brah¬ 
man  the  god,  which  is  identified  with  self,  is  quite  abstract,  uni¬ 
versal,  and  unchanging.  This  abstract  self  of  the  Brahman  priest 
was  capable  of  receiving  any  amount  or  sort  of  knowledge;  the 
capacity  of  the  vedic  student  was  all-absorbing;  the  usual  brahma- 
carin  was  little  more  than  a  mirror  of  vedic  tradition.  He  did  not 
add  to  the  store.  Even  so  the  All- God  Brahman  was  everything 
that  was  or  ever  could  be.  This  god  could  absorb  everything, 
but  could  create  nothing.  However,  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that 
the  Brahman  priest  arrived  at  this  way  of  thinking  from  his  use 
of  the  Kshatriyan  attitude.  For  centuries  he  had  been  learning 
the  Veda  and  performing  the  sacrifice;  undoubtedly  these  priests 


SUMMARY 


77 


early  came  to  a  class-consciousness.  Later  the  seers  in  the  medi¬ 
tations  of  their  old  age  arrived  at  the  idea  that  knowledge  of  sac¬ 
rificial  rites  was  alone  sufficient.  Just  as  the  sacrifice  was  sacred 
and  worshiped,  so  this  knowledge  came  to  be  sacred.  This  knowl¬ 
edge  was  universal  among  the  priesthood,  and  hence  can  never  be 
really  described  as  subjective.  But  what  is  this  self  that  can  know 
the  knowledge ;  what  was  originally  there  that  could  know  ?  This 
vehicle  of  knowledge  was  the  real  soul,  but  it  could  never  be  known; 
it  had  to  be  individual.  But  this  soul  that  alone  did  not  pass 
away  was  the  only  reality — this  was  Brahman.  A  later  philo¬ 
sophical  statement  makes  this  the  only  Brahman.  The  Brahman 
is  all  in  each  individual. 

Out  of  such  a  system  there  can  be  but  two  results.  One  of  these 
is  found  in  the  orthodox  Vedanta,  the  other  in  the  Sankhyan  system, 
or  in  Buddhism.  In  the  Vedanta  the  self  is  made  up  of  this  inner 
soul  which  cannot  be  known,  and  of  the  attachment  of  this  soul 
through  ignorance  to  the  senses  and  the  will.  These  latter  are 
not  real,  and  all  pass  away  when  the  true  soul  is  freed  from  them. 
Hence  they  are  not  a  part  of  the  soul,  and  it  is  a  misfortune  that 
they  ever  became  attached  to  it.  If  the  activities  of  sense  and 
will  are  not  real,  then  the  objective  world  which  they  give  us 
cannot  be  real.  So  it  is  that  the  phenomenal  world  “in  which  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being”  is  illusion;  the  only  reality  is 
within  us — and  that  is  unknown. 

Buddhism  goes  a  step  farther  and  denies,  not  only  the  value  of 
consciousness,  but  the  reality  of  god.  Buddha  accepts  the  reality 
of  the  senses  and  activities  of  the  self — he  advises  right  aspira¬ 
tion,  right  views,  control  of  the  senses — for  this  brings  peace  and 
contentment  in  this  life.  But  all  is  futile — for  these  all  pass  away, 
and  the  unconscious  self  alone  is  left.  Whether  Buddha  reaches 
annihilation  is  a  matter  of  question,  but  the  materialists  at  any 
rate  take  this  final  step  and  deny  any  life  hereafter,  any  reality  of 
mind  apart  from  matter,  and  therefore  deny  transmigration.  There 
is  one  life  of  this  world  and  that  is  real.  The  Vedantists  and  Bud¬ 
dhists,  finding  no  means  of  reconciling  their  object  of  knowledge 
which  the  aroused  self  presents,  turn  it  back  upon  itself,  and  each 
destroys  the  individual  activity  of  that  self.  It  is  only  the  unknown 


78  THE  ORIGIN  OF  SUBJECTIVITY  IN  HINDU  THOUGHT 


and  universal  self  which  is  real.  For  the  Brahman  his  function 
was  secure  because  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  fixed  social  caste 
system.  Nevertheless  his  function  had  become  dead — a  mere  habit 
pressed  by  social  custom;  his  function  was  therefore  abstract  also. 
The  sacrifice  no  longer  created  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  or 
a  renewed  sacrificer  and  a  new  god — it  was  an  arrested  develop¬ 
ment.  The  Buddhists  refused  to  offer  up  this  empty  dish,  and 
they  died  from  want  of  spiritual  food.  They  could  find  no  satis¬ 
faction,  no  life,  hence  their  pessimism  and  negation  of  life.  When 
god  and  the  intimate  facts  of  sense,  feeling,  and  will  are  taken 
away,  the  leaven  of  all  religious  experience  is  gone.  On  the  one 
hand,  this  means  an  overemphasis  of  facts  of  sense  because  it 
cannot  matter  to  society;  on  the  other  hand,  it  kills  the  senses 
because  they  can  find  no  value  in  society.  The  individual  feeling 
and  will  simply  have  no  place  in  society  at  all. 

While  the  Vedantists  and  Buddhists  have  given  us  great  sys¬ 
tems  of  thought,  they  have  not  been  valuable  in  relieving  society 
in  general.  Hence  the  orthodox  movements  of  the  epics  and  the 
semiorthodox  period  of  the  renaissance  have  gained  where  the 
others  failed.  New  ideas  were  slipped  into  the  old  system  until 
it  was  unwittingly  remade,  and  hardened  Brahmanism  became 
more  or  less  pliant  Hinduism.  None  of  these  ideas  either  alone  or 
together  can  compare  with  the  earlier  innovations  which  were  more 
in  the  nature  of  revolts  against  Brahmanism.  This  internal  attack 
was  able  finally  to  accomplish  more  satisfactory  steps  through  the 
bhakti  idea  and  the  personal  tendencies  of  the  trinity  of  later 
Hinduism.  Here  just  as  elsewhere  the  priests  reclothed  every 
doctrine  with  a  bit  of  pantheism,  but  in  the  long  run  it  was  an 
advance.  The  renaissance  showed  how  the  Kshatriyan  had  given 
up  the  struggle  for  religious  independence  and  had  tactfully  per¬ 
mitted  himself  to  function  through  the  priest.  So  it  is  that  advance 
in  literature,  science,  and  great  systematization  of  knowledge  came 
about.  The  Hindu  was  again  developing  a  self-consciousness 
through  a  building  up  of  a  physical  object.  But  this  activity  did 
not  last  long.  It  is  impossible  to  say  what  might  have  been  the 
situation  if  the  political  life  of  India  had  been  different. 


SUMMARY 


79 


Every  great  wave  in  Hindu  thought  has  been  coincident  with 
a  freer  political  life  and  with  a  centralization  of  government.  The 
union  of  native  tribes  occurred  at  approximately  the  same  time 
as  the  development  of  the  Upanishad  theory.  The  Mahabhdrata 
indicated  that  that  was  not  a  confederation,  but  a  struggle  that 
ended  in  the  supremacy  of  one  tribe.  Buddhism  and  other  hereti¬ 
cal  tendencies  can  be  associated  with  the  great  Maurya  dynasties 
of  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  b.c.,  while  the  rise  of  the  more 
enlightened  phases  of  Hinduism  and  the  renaissance  is  associated 
with  the  great  Gupta  powers  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  a.d. 
Such  emphasis  on  political  life  gives  the  warrior  opportunity  to 
exercise  his  original  function  and  thus  to  gain  a  new  view  of  his 
value  to  society.  Added  to  this  line  of  coincidences  is  the  con¬ 
tention  by  many  Sanskrit  scholars  that  the  innovations  in  thought 
came  from  princes;  they  cite  the  court  of  Janaka  described  in  the 
Upanishads,  the  family  of  Siddartha  Gautama  which  was  of 
royal  blood,  though  not  direct  rulers,  and  they  maintain  also  that 
Krishna  (in  the  Bhagavadgita)  was  from  a  royal  house.  To 
this  we  can  add  the  patronage  that  the  kings  gave  the  Brahmans 
in  the  development  of  science  and  literature.  In  almost  every 
case  these  princes  came  from  the  eastern  portion  of  India,  where 
the  tribes  were  yet  in  a  mobile  state  and  life  was  more  active. 

These  efforts  at  self-expression,  then,  came  from  a  class  and  a 
portion  of  the  country  which  was  still  free.  Its  purpose  was 
thwarted  through  its  meeting  the  all-absorbing  capacity  of  Brah¬ 
manism,  which  abstracted  all  of  the  real,  vital  power  of  its  con¬ 
ception.  In  such  manner  had  the  warrior’s  function  also  been 
abstracted  and  rendered  valueless  in  the  general  social  life.  Beat¬ 
ing  against  an  immovable  barrier,  this  self  turned  within  to  f(nd 
in  its  own  capacity  for  being  all  that  was  real  and  eternal.  Hence 
Indian  thought  must  always  be  subjective  as  long  as  the  caste 
system  and  its  counterpart,  an  unknowable  pantheism,  can  con¬ 
trol  its  social  life. 


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